http://www.aolnews.com/nation/artic...e-us-if-health-care-reform-is-passed/19389808
Limbaugh Vows to Leave US Over Health Care
<ABBR class="published updated" title=2010-03-09T17:19:51-05:00>Updated: 7 minutes ago</ABBR>
David Knowles Writer
AOL News
(March 9) -- Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has thrown down the gauntlet. If the U.S. Congress passes health care reform, Limbaugh will leave the country to receive his medical treatment.
Specifically, Limbaugh told a caller that he envisions traveling to Costa Rica should the government, through a federal program costing upwards of $1 trillion, expand health care coverage to approximately 30 million Americans who are currently uninsured.
Ironically, Costa Rica offers
universal heath care to all of its residents.
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Limbaugh's guarantee is but the latest variation of what has come to be known as "Baldwin's wager," after actor Alec Baldwin was said to have threatened to expatriate himself should George W. Bush defeat Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. Bush won, of course, and Baldwin did not end up relocating to foreign shores.
Other celebrities who have promised the equivalent of "going Galt" provided that political events did not turn out to their liking include director Robert Altman and actress Kim Basinger, who also threatened to pack up and go should
Bush defeat Gore.
Poking fun at his own brother, in 2008, actor Stephen Baldwin said
he'd leave the U.S. should Barack Obama be nominated to run for president for the Democrats. And, like his brother, he remains in the U.S.
Susan Sarandon, Heidi Klum and husband, Seal, meanwhile promised to join the ranks of ex-pats should John McCain best Obama.
Not to be outdone, however, actress Tina Fey raised the bar further still. Fed up with having to impersonate Sarah Palin, Fey shuddered at the thought a McCain/Palin future.
"If she wins, I'm done," Fey told TV Guide. "I can't do that for four years. And by 'I'm done,' I mean I'm leaving Earth."
Whether Limbaugh, who is 59, will actually follow through with his on-air promise should health care reform be implemented over the next few years remains unclear. Anyone care for a wager?
