Experts Imagine What Ryan’s ACA Replacement Would Look Like If Podesta’s Email Password Hadn’t Been “Password”
Top U.S. medical experts say it’s not hard to imagine what Paul Ryan’s proposed Affordable Care Act replacement plan would have looked like if John Podesta hadn’t chosen the word “password” as the password for his email account.
“If Hillary Clinton had been elected President, [Ryan] probably wouldn’t have the political backing to suggest going back to letting insurance companies dick over old people and women,” says Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who divides his time between the operating room and the battlefield.
Podesta’s email account was compromised when he received an email purporting to be from the Gmail team. The email instructed Podesta to follow a link to reset his password. Wanda Reynolds, a 90-year-old retired librarian who headed Podesta’s cyber security team, looked at the email and incorrectly told Podesta it was authentic.
The New York Times obtained a copy of the email and published it yesterday:
Dear Hillary Hughovna Clinton Campaign Big Boss John Podesta,
It is me Sergey the inventor of Google, hi how are you, doing? We have made terrible mistake and losed your password, can you please click this and type it agian?
Thanks you,
Larry Page
“If [Podesta’s] Gmail password had been something more secure than the word ‘password,’ and if he hadn’t used the same password for his campaign email, there’s no way [Republicans] would have proposed anything as stupid as replacing the tax penalty [for the individual mandate] with a fee paid directly to a god-damn insurance company,” says Atul Gawande, the man your mother brings up every time you tell her about a professional accomplishment, reminding you that Gawande is “a doctor and he writes for The New Yorker!”
“If Podesta knew how to use the Internet, us rich people wouldn’t be having a Christmas-in-February moment right now!” exclaims renowned mustachioed man Dr. Phil, who is neither a medical doctor nor a man with the last name Phil. “I love Ryan’s new plan!”
