Sometimes when you think you’ve seen it all…
For the far right, opposing proposed health insurance reform isn’t enough. Now they want people to protest by refusing health insurance coverage that reform efforts might make available to them. Check out this excerpt from an e-mail fundraising appeal from the executive director of the United States Justice Foundation:
“I’m asking you to flatly refuse to buy government insurance. And, if needed, the United States Justice Foundation (USJF) will represent you in court, to defend your decision. You have my word.”
Oh, goodie. But will the USFJ also pay for treatment if that uninsured patriot gets cancer or is crippled in an auto accident? And what about his kids? Will USJF pay for their hospitalization when they can’t get the asthma medicine or insulin they need because Mom and Dad are unemployed and have lost their health insurance?
As we’ve said before, honorable people can have honest disagreements about health insurance reform, and TFN has taken no official position on it. But the folks at USFJ are hardly the voice of reason. In fact, the group’s e-mail moves beyond opposition to health care reform to standard right-wing extremist nuttery:
“From the day that Mr. Obama tossed his unqualified hat into the Presidential ring, by refusing to prove that he is a natural-born citizen, he immediately proved his worthlessness!”
“While the time certainly hasn’t come YET for muskets, we the people absolutely must put our foot down and make a defiant stand, saying: “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!” Our forefathers did, risking all. Search your heart and take patriotic action! Your generous sacrifice will go far to stop our government takeover.”
How generous?
“With so much at stake, please consider DOUBLING your original thought of a gift. Perhaps you are in a position to give $10,000, $25,000, or more. If so, think of this: YOU may well be the patriot to literally change the course of United States history!”
Well, you can be sure of this: not many of the folks who can afford to cough up $10,000 or $25,000 to the USJF’s bank account are worried much about going without health insurance. But their money will sure help the USJF’s campaigns against same-sex marriage, reproductive rights and public education. And if 30 or 40 million folks have to go without health insurance, at least they will have been saved from President Obama’s “mad rush to severely weaken – if not destroy – our Constitutional republic.”
Stupid. Irresponsible. Morally bankrupt.
Okay, there goes Medicare Part B for these folks, along with the Prescription Drug Coverage.
But the way you ‘buy’ VA coverage is by serving your country. Can’t do that, either.
And ‘government’ doesn’t just mean ‘federal government.’ However did I miss all those Texas local, state, and federal legislators turning down their coverage?
Let’um turn down health coverage if they want to.
We don’t want them contributing to the gene pool anyway.
It’s natural selection at work.
PHarvey.
I agree with you that “stupid” and “antisocial” are inherently maladaptive and would at some point get them naturally selected. The interesting part is this. An albino squirrel will get naturally selected because he stands out as a perfect and highly visible target for predators. However, he has no control over his pigmentation. The folks of which you speak will naturally select themselves as a matter of conscious choice when they should have known better.
I guess they will call it “dying in defense of principle.” In this case, the principle is that taxpayer funds should not be used to help the sick, but rather, should be given back to the taxpayers so they can purchase those new bass boats they’ve had their eyes on for a while. Besides, as they would say, the Bible only authorizes helping the sick through voluntary individual donations outside of government. Great!!! Ask the oncology department at your local hospital to send your bills for radiation treatment and chemotherapy to your local evangelical or fundamentalist church—or any church for that matter—and see what happens. You know what will happen—now don’t you—which brings me around to my own little religious note.
Some religious organizations prevent their people from seeking medical help, forcing them to trust in prayer alone to heal a badly infected foot. They forget that God has already made provision for that healing with an antibiotic and that medication IS the answer to the prayer. The Religious Right forgets that Obamacare (as they call it) may be God’s specific answer to paying for a person’s radiation and chemotherapy—because the individual in not going to be able to do it and their church is not going to do it. So, unless we think God is so hard-hearted as to let millions die so he can save a few shekels, the only choice left is a publicly funded heathcare system of some sort.
I rest my case.
I’m reminded of a couple things:
At a recent Town Hall, Sen/Dr. Coburn was questioned by a woman who described the desperate medical and financial situation of a friend who could not afford health care or health insurance. “What would the Senator say her friend should do?” she asked.
Coburn answered that instead of looking to the Government for help, we should turn instead to our neighbors, and start helping each other.
I’ve got an idea: The lady’s friend should get help from Coburn’s neighbors. If Coburn or someone in his family gets sick, they should get what help they can from the neighbors of this lady’s destitute friend.
Coburn et al. can’t be so stupid that they don’t see what this is about. Why do they think that we’re so stupid? On the other hand, maybe what they take away from their party’s founder is the notion that maybe “you can fool enough of the people, enough of the time.
As for getting health care advice from the far right:
When the Kitzmiller decision was released, I turned right away to Pat Robertson’s network, so that I would not miss his spin on that. I think it was another day before his response to that, but I did hear a woman call in to ask for his advice on whether or not she should get hormone therapy.
Those folks are in such a different universe, I can’t begin to try to understand.
Tony:
With regard to “Dr. Carol Hanes,” are you sure that spelling is correct? I watched her original delivery to the SBOE, and she stated that she lives in Memphis, Tennessee. A lot of my ancestors lived in Tennessee, and I have done quite a bit of genealogical research there. This surname is fairly common in Middle Tennessee (Nashville area), but it is always spelled as “Haynes.” In my experience, I can fairly well say that I have never heard of anyone in Tennessee spelling their name as “Hanes” or “Haines.”
I also did a Google search on Carol Hanes (whatever) and came up with nothing. Old Tennessee dowagers, especially one with a Ph. D., are usually so involved in Junior League and other civic activities that there names are bound to come up on a Google search.
Finally, I wonder where she got that “Dr.” Was it from a legitimate educational institution—or maybe a diploma mill or some small religious school with little or no genuine accreditation.
During her speech to the SBOE, I had a gut feeling or suspicion that something was “not quite right” with her, and it was interesting to me that the SBOE let her ramble on and on beyond her three-minute speaking time. I am going to continue digging and researching on her to determine what, if anything, is making me so uneasy.
Charles, Thanks for continuing to dig. I also did some searching but found nothing.
I didn’t know about the spelling, so I put (phonetic) after it the first time. Based on your information, I will change it in that post, but still with the “(phonetic)”.
Another thing — If you listen to her presentation, she keeps talking about “what we want” and “what we’re asking for” — like she is speaking for some group that’s not identified. It seems clear that there was coordination behind the scenes, likely directed by Ames, but it would be good to find out more about that.
One thing I found interesting is how one witness after another mentioned the 7-1 vote of the writing team, and each time Mercer treated it as corroborating testimony by one more (seemingly independent) source, when clearly anyone repeating that story could only have gotten it from Ames. I have no doubt that he was outvoted 7-1, but I don’t for a second trust his account of what they were voting on, and why the majority was voting against him. Anyway, the story itself, by its very nature, is a story only he could tell. The fact that other “testifiers” kept repeating his story should have undermined their credibility as independent sources, rather than being taken as corroborative confirmation.
I want to be very careful about this, since I don’t know if this is the same person, but it might provide a lead
Remember when she talked about (“we”) doing business on the international fuel market (and being afraid she’d be beheaded if she traveled to the Middle East)?
Well, have a look at
http://www.theofficialoilblacklist.com/haynes.htm
Again, I’m not saying … , and TFN isn’t saying … , but there might be somebody who could pursue whether this is she …
I don’t know Tony. If you read that carefully, it says that Carole Haynes is a “he” rather than a “she.” I’ll keep digging too. Thanks!!!
OK, so Sen/Doc Coburn says I’m supposed to help my neighbor. Fine. Let’s say my neighbor develops cancer. Of course, since he/she lacked health insurance coverage, I’m not sure how the diagnosis came about. Maybe my neighbor self-diagnosed? Be that as it may, how am I supposed to help my neighbor? Am I supposed to perform surgery on my neighbor? Prescribe the radio/chem therapy for my neighbor? How do I do that? Hey, Doc/Sen Coburn, how do I build an MRI machine or a CT scanner? How do I concoct a chemotherapy? Got a recipe? Is it available online? Which cereal should I buy to find an M.D. diploma and registry inside?
The stupidity and arrogance of these a-holes astounds me. Just when I think it can’t get worse, it gets worse.
Definitely time for a good old-fashioned French Revolution. Time to sharpen up them guillotine blades.