Cheerleading for the Freeloaders
Van Jones makes a salient point:
“It’s so amazing to hear the Republican Party now cheerleading for the freeloaders,” Jones said on ABC’s This Week. “They say ‘hey listen, if you dive-bomb yourself into an emergency room, don’t worry about it, taxpayers will pay for it; we have no — there’s nothing we can do to make sure people don’t pay on the front end.’”
“What I don’t understand is, what does the Republican Party want here?” he added. “If we can’t have single payer, we can’t have a public option, and we can’t have individual responsibility, what we’re going to have here is more Americans dying.”
What it comes down to, of course, is that Republicans are simply opposed to just about anything Obama proposes, including their own pet policies–which the individual mandate was. Had McCain won and proposed this, the very same Republicans would all be pushing for it. As McConnell so aptly put, their number one priority is to make Obama fail; everything else, even their own policies, and surely the well-being of Americans, is secondary.
In response to Van Jones, Ann Coulter rather blindly stated that it is, quote:
“a freeloader problem created by Congress” thanks to a law requiring that emergency rooms do not turn down patients.
As if Van Jones had not just pointed out that it has been Republicans who, for the past few years, have consistently suggested freeloader use of emergency rooms as a viable alternative to health care insurance. She’s responding to Van Jones’ criticisms of Republicans encouraging this by saying that it’s a horrible mess created by Congress.
So, either she’s deaf and had no idea what he said, or she wasn’t listening, or she’s joining in on criticizing Republicans, or she’s just dumb as a post.
One presumes, however, that her point is that we shouldn’t have freeloaders using emergency rooms. As Van Jones pointed out, however, lacking the only alternatives–single payer, public option, or the individual mandate–millions of Americans will suffer and die without proper medical care.
Cue enthusiastic cheering from the Republican debate audience. “Americans suffering and dying! YEAHHH!!!”
Emergency rooms can turn down patients that don’t present with life-threatening issues, or with issues that aren’t serious enough to prevent a trip downtown to the po’ peoples hospital.
Also, they only have to stabilize patients with life-threatening conditions, they don’t actually have to fully treat anyone for free.
And it’s entirely true that if President McCain or Romney proposed what they call “ObamaCare”, their would be no issues now. The Republicans proposed the same damn thing back in 1993 in response to “HillaryCare”, and the health system pointman at their main propaganda mill — Heritage Foundation — repeated this proposal as late as 2005 IIRC.
For Republicans to oppose one of their own policies, and we have to pretend that their not just flaming hypocrites and utterly dishonest shitheads, is really quite something.
I maybe mistaken, but in last weeks hearings, didn’t Supreme Court Justice Scalia say, “shouldn’t we just let some of these people die?”
That’s what the Republicans are left with, policy wise, as Obama care co-opted the republican Fascist-Care plan hatched by Heritage Foundation and implemented by Romney in Massachusetts.
Now there are 60 million people without insurance – Scalia’s comments were a death threat to 60 million possible voters. Throw in the 150 million female voters that the Republicans are waging a war against, and the math says they must be running out of voters, even as they gain ever more concentration of money. At some point the agencies of democracy are going to devastate the Republican camp. As it is, I find it hard to believe the number of voters they are still able to get to vote for them.
As it is, I find it hard to believe the number of voters they are still able to get to vote for them.
Once the Republicans crafted their platform to appeal to the left side of the IQ curve they were golden.
“Evilootion? I ain’t no monkey!”
“Global warming? hah, look at that there snow!”
“Strong dollar? Sounds good to me!”
“Wimmin killing their babby in their stomach? Gotta stop that!”
“Those towelheads lookin’ at the Holy Land funny again? Nuke their asses!”
“Take MY guns? NO F###ING WAY”
“Government man telling me how to run my farm? Screw that! I’ll slough that pigshit when and where I want! MY LAND, MY RULES”
“Young people getting less Christian? No surprise since the secular humans have taken over everything!”
“The homos now legally shacking up together like in Soddom and Gemorah? Just how bad do the liberals want to piss God off?”
“Government wants to take more than 35% of my marginal net income? Taxes should be no higher than 20% on me — make the poor people pay more instead!”
Well, that last one isn’t stupid per se.