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How Broccoli Landed on Supreme Court Menu

By fitzkap   Follow   Thu, 14 Jun 2012, 10:30am   428 views   3 comments
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/business/how-broccoli-became-a-symbol-in-the-health-care-debate.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&adxnnlx=1339678855-CD7NtFj4Ywx8d1H4sj5roA

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1. CaptainShuddup Follow Befriend (1) 247 threads 4,683 comments

   1   10:54am Thu 14 Jun 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (1)   "How can you tell when broccoli has gone bad?" "When it tries to make a political point.? This brings to mind President George H.W. Bush, who in 1990 demonstrated his assertiveness to the American public by declaring during a news conference: I do not like broccoli. I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it, and I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli. (Students of the New Yorker and James Thurber will recall his caption for a cartoon depicting a little girl and mother squaring off at table. “It’s broccoli, dear,” says the mom. To which... the girl replies: “I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it.”) Bush went so far as to ban broccoli from Air Force One and boldly declared he would not back down from his anti-broccoli position, even though California farmers dispatched 20,000 pounds of the flowery, green vegetable , which is high in calcium and Vitamin A, to the nation’s capital. where it was donated to a local food bank to help feed the needy. “There are truckloads of broccoli at this very minute descending on Washington,” he said. Broccoli -- as an issue, not a side dish -- even popped up at a state dinner for Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki. “The broccoli growers of America are up in arms against me,” the leader of the free world told Mazowiecki. “Would you be interested in having the [shipment] in Poland?” Ten years later, in February of 2001, President George W. Bush proved that "blood is thicker than diplomacy" when President Bush was asked by a reporter for his opinion of broccoli. After briefly hesitatating, he flashed a "thumb's down" sign and said, "Make it cauliflower."

2. taketheplunge Follow Befriend (1) 18 threads 29 comments San Francisco, CA

   2   12:39pm Thu 14 Jun 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   I also posted this same story under the subject "Could Congress require Americans to buy a house?" If congress can make you buy broccoli, or health insurance, I can't think why they couldn't force you to buy a house. If The Affordable Car Act's ("Obamacare") individual mandate is upheld, can anyone think of a reason why Congress couldn't force people to buy houses, assuming such an idea was enacted into law?

3. elliemae Follow Befriend (25) 413 threads 6,977 comments Saint George, UT elliemae's website

   3   5:09pm Thu 14 Jun 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   They make you buy auto insurance. Using your argument, they should make everyone live in their car.