Perhaps he should work on his marketing technique:
MEANS-TESTING GAINS in both parties as long-term entitlement fix.
Republican Sen. Ensign of Nevada pushes plan to charge affluent beneficiaries more for Medicare prescription-drug coverage. “It makes no sense for Bill Gates’s father to have his prescription drugs paid for by a schoolteacher or a firefighter or a police officer,” the senator says.
Why is the reference here to Bill Gates’s father? I’m all for the basic message of means testing government entitlement payments, but how is suggesting that a son should financially take care of his father any more enlightened than suggesting government should take care of him? Neither example expects the individual to provide for himself. Of course Bill Gates should pay for his own prescriptions, but his money has no bearing on the political legitimacy of his father’s claim to government benefits.
Link via Megan McArdle.
FWITW, Bill Gates Sr. has been a very prominent, visible and vocal opponent of abolishing the estate tax.
Not sure that’s relevant, but perhaps.
Possibly. I don’t mind the argument that Bill Gates Sr. is wealthy enough to pay for his own medicine. I just think the reference is only useful to people who pay more attention to the tiny details than political bloggers. The reference to Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, is too deliberate as a stand-in for wealth. Sen. Ensign was intellectually lazy, more than anything.