Whom the Gods will destroy, they first make mad. Here, from p. 16 of yesterday’s Times, is Tara Evans. Mad as hell and scared of health care. God save her. And us.
Around the Oval at the Pasta Loft, Tara Evans, 25, the manager, said she had been worried about the health proposals because if they passed, “I would be out of a job because of the taxes” the restaurant would have to pay to cover its 35 employees. She said she did not have coverage herself because it would cost $200 a month. “That’s a car payment,” she said. “Rent. Student loans.”
Few seemed aware that the proposed bills would provide tax breaks for small-business owners or exempt them from penalties if they did not provide insurance to their employees. Or they assumed that they would still come out losers.
And many admitted to being thoroughly confused.
“I just don’t know what the heck it is,” said Marie Mack, 69, the owner of the Fish Bowl. Ms. Mack said she was not necessarily against a health care bill, but that Democrats had done a bad job of selling the idea.
“They have to simplify it for the simple folk,” she said.
