The Government Has an Erection For You

As I wrote recently in an article for The Left Coast Rebel titled A Liberal Dose of Viagra , Chris Matthews may have lost that tingle up his leg for Barack Obama. But many other people on both sides of the political spectrum have not lost their "excitement" for big government even in this era of pretend austerity. For those that love the government gift-machine, the times have been very good indeed.

As to the title of this piece, you read it right. It seems the decision makers in the Medicare division of the cradle to grave government bureaucracy decided to ask our older male citizens if they were still able to "firm up" the deal. And if their medical records indicated they needed a little help, they could be provided with “Male Vacuum Erection Systems".  An "erector set" of sorts for the white hair crowd, also known as a penis pump. And just in time for Christmas!

Actually, it's been going on for many years, not just during the holiday season, but I couldn't resist. However, I did resist putting a picture of an actual penis pump on this post instead of the family friendly one you see.

It seems that over the last ten years the price of this equipment has been rising with the anatomy. (Artificial demand will do that to things.) In 2001 it only cost the taxpayers 11 million to help the geezers get it up to snuff but by 2010 the cost had risen (no pun intended) to 47 million.

And as Everett Dirkson once said, a few million here and a few million there and pretty soon you are talking about real money! The cost to taxpayers by the end of this year will surpass a whopping Quarter-Billion dollars. 

All this information came to me from our friends over at the Heartland Institute when Jim Lakely, the Director of Communications at that fine think tank gave me a heads up via email that the article by Benjamin Domenech on this subject was being published in The Heartlander today.

Unfortunately, before I could "get to press" on this piece, Matt Drudge broke the story with a link to the article this morning. It really ticks me off when a tiny site like the Drudge Report gets the drop on my huge blog, even when I have a head start.

But it got me to thinking; If the government wants one old guy to get excited, they could just talk Drudge into putting a link on his website to WhatWeThinkAndWhy and the country could save plenty on Male Vacuum Erection Systems. At least for one old blogger. And just in time for Christmas!