GOP Assault on Our Safety Net
September 23, 2011 at 4:02 PM
GOP By MIKE BROWN
Michael Anderson was right in his recent letter in the Star Democrat identifying a question to Ron Paul in a Republican debate as providing a telling moment. That moment should scare us all.
When CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Paul if a 30-year-old without health insurance suddenly needed major medical care, should there be a safety net to ensure he receives proper treatment. Paul said federal safety nets are unconstitutional and immoral, and that this individual should look out for himself and seek help from family, the community, and charitable organizations. He said we got along fine without Medicare and Medicaid before these programs existed, and we don't need them now. Tea partiers erupted in applause.
Paul's assertions are false. People, including seniors, got sicker and died sooner before these programs, which is why we have them. Uninsured citizens suffer the same fate today. A recent Harvard study found that 46,000 Americans die prematurely each year for lack of health insurance. An Institute of Medicine Consensus Study "Consequences of Uninsurance" concluded that uninsured working-class Americans receive too little medical care too late, are sicker and die sooner, and receive poorer care in the hospital.
The most frightening moment came when Paul was asked if society should just let the person die. Some of the crazed tea partiers screamed "Yeah!"
These chilling beliefs of Paul and tea partiers are not just isolated to the fringe lunatics; they are becoming mainstream GOP positiions. Republicans will eliminate Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid if they regain power.
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Posted by
DeTout
on
Feb 5th, 2012
I agree with you that Lieberman would have been an ecelxlent candidate for the Democrat Party who could have attracted people from the middle. However, I don't see the Democrats changing in the next 4 years. I don't think they lost conclusively enough to change the core beliefs and core supporters. There is still enough wiggle room to rationalize the loss and belief that 'if we just.... we would have won.' If they do parrot centrist concepts in the near future I will assume they are disingenuous. Until I see the radical left wingers screaming that the Democrat Party is betraying them, I won't believe a centrist word out of their collective mouths. Since I don't expect them to change, I expect the radicals inside the party to fight tooth and nail to drive the party into the ground rather than give up control. Hillary may be able to convince them to go with a strong defense, centrist social platform in '08. But I suspect she will not be able to give up the goal of controlling people's economic life thru Byzantine tax policies, class warfare/high taxes, medicare/social security tweaking, industry regulation, environmental regulation, etc.
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