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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Why do Republicans hate Americans?
Posted by Jill | 5:41 AM
And so here we are on September 19, 2013, with the House of Representatives led by the government equivalent of a bunch of kids who decide to pour gasoline over a sleeping homeless person and light him on fire "just to see what happens."

I've never understood the logic of putting in government positions people who really hate the very idea of government. There's something profoundly hypocritical about guys like Ted Cruz, whose raison d'etre is to hate government, and yet they cash their government paycheck just like the teachers and firemen and federal workers they excoriate even as they check their bank balances on their government-issued hand-helds. But if there's one thing they hate more than the idea of government, it's Democratic presidents in general, and Barack Obama in particular. And they hate Americans. They really, really, really hate every American that isn't funnelling large sums of soft-money into their campaign coffers. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they want as many Americans to die as possible -- to die from diabetes and cancer and cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell anemia and heart disease. They want Americans to just tough out the pain of shingles. They want children to go without vaccinations and well-baby care and treatment for peanut allergies and ear infections and having that arm that broke when they fell out of a tree. They want the kids with moyamoya who are having strokes every day to become copmlete invalids. They want this. They hate the idea that Americans should have health care. Fuck 'em if they can't afford $20,000/year for a family policy. That's Republican doctrine.

Four years ago, Rep. Alan Grayson took no end of crap for saying this:



Someone please tell me exactly what he said then that was wrong, especially in light of the Republican House's plan to create global economic collapse because they hate the idea that Americans might have health care.

I happen to believe that we should have single-payer health coverage, but the reality is that we don't, and we're not going to for a very, very long time, if ever. No matter how much you hate the insurance companies, no matter how much you hate screaming on the phone that the neurosurgeon's office faxed the clinical information over three times and just because the guy in the mailroom hasn't gotten around to rerouting it to you doesn't mean it isn't there, you need what they sell. You never realize just how much you need it until you do.

I've always been really healthy, but one thing I've learned from our experience with cancer and rare brain diseases is that you can be walking around feeling fine and have no idea what kind of deadly enemy is lurking in your bladder, or your brain, or your breast, or anywhere else. In fact, my own medical maintenance has been neglected lo these last six months as much as our driveway, which is in desperate need of sealing, has. But I could show you a list of claims as long as my arm that would make your head spin. Because while we are grateful for access to the wonderful people at Big Cancer Center and Big Prestigious Hospital, I am also extremely aware of what it costs. Much of the reason it costs as much as it does is because the medical facilities have to hire entire staffs of people just to deal with insurance companies, and because the CEO of Aetna has to make $36.6 million a year including his stock options, and the ousted CEO of Wellpoint can get almost $50 million for doing a crappy job and hospital operator HCA Holdings can give its CEO a pay package worth about $48 million. There's a lot to hate about insurance companies, but they're here and they're what we've got. And when you are dealing with cancer and brain surgery, there isn't an American alive who isn't a CEO who could pay for what we're getting.

When we hear that the scans show no tumor. When I look at Mr. Brilliant's head where you can hardly see the scar from his surgery not even a month ago. When I see what the radiologist bills for a consult. When I see the mid-five-figure claim from Big Prestgious Hospital. When I see all these things, I always ask, "What do people do who don't have insurance?" You know what they do? They die. Not quickly, but they die. They piss blood until they go into kidney failure. They go right to Stage IV and die in pain because they can't even pay for painkillers.

And Republicans hate these people. And they are willing to rock the world economy just so they can show them how much they hate them -- and how much they hate their black president.

But it's not just about Americans' health care. It's about their wages. Because while it's OK for Republicans to make six figures in government-issued pay and rake in campaign cash, it's not OK for an American working in a retail store to make a living wage. It's not OK for people living in fracking areas to have clean properties without fracking waste oozing through their yards. It's not OK for American children to have clean air to breathe and food that doesn't poison them. This is not OK because Republicans hate the very people who sent them to Washington.

Yes, these people are ignorant, some of them willfully. They're incurious and frightened and they are so used to looking at those who are dark of skin as the source of their problems that they have become wired that way. But the bottom line is that they put these people into office and we are all going to pay the price. Now we will see what happens. But nothing that is going to happen is going to change one simple fact.

Republican Congresspeople hate Americans.

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9 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I live in PA. I know exactly how much the Republicans hate everyone except themselves and anyone willing to lay the greenbacks in their pockets. Good post!
9/19/13, 12:31 PM  
Blogger Patricia said...
I haven't had health insurance, since my husband passed away in 2001. My dad says the same thing to me, "don't get sick." He's not even a Republican.
9/19/13, 8:39 PM  
Blogger The New York Crank said...
Two centuries from now, when some historian looks back and investigates why, by the year 2030, so many guillotines had been set up in the public squares of America, one of her graduate school assistants will bring this blog post of yours to her and say, "Look! Imagine the rage that must have been seething everywhere under the surface!"

You have put your finger precisely where much of the righteous rage is. America is having its Marie Antoinette moment, or perhaps its Marie Antoinette decade or two, and God help the One Percent when the rest of America starts looking for stale crumbs of cake.

Very crankily yours,
The New York Crank
9/19/13, 11:24 PM  
Blogger elizabeth said...
Perfectly written. Thank you.
9/20/13, 11:38 AM  
Anonymous e.a.f. said...
The paper work in the American health industry is an industry unto itself. If the paperwork was eliminated or cut to 1/3, the savings would be amazing. More people could have medical coverage for less cost. The current system works for the 1%ers because they own stock in the private health care and insurance companies.

A country which does not provide health care to its children, is crazy and very short sighted/stupid. Some countries are run by crazies, but they aren't stupid. The republicans are crazy and stupid, not to mention having the moral equivlant attitudes of the North Korean government.

the thought that a G 8 country lets its citizens die for lack of health care, is simply amazing. You'd think in this day and age, the American politicians/voters would have gotten with the civilized world's agenda.
9/21/13, 5:52 PM  
Blogger Buford said...
I am waiting for the Southern Poverty Law Center to declare the GOP a Hate group...
9/22/13, 9:12 AM  
Blogger Phil said...
With their proven track record I believe we should put the blame for their ability to inflict this damage squarely where it belongs, on the ignorant motherfuckers who keep electing these assholes into office.
THEY are the ones who hate Americans.



Phil
9/22/13, 2:54 PM  
Blogger bearsense said...
My wife had one of those rare "things" in her brain..... and just under 4 weeks ago it ruptured. I'm thankful that I receive single-payer healthcare from my career in the Armed Forces, backed up by Medicare. Navigating the system would have been impossible, and I would not be left with enough money to provide for her or buy a small box to hold her ashes.
She passed away on the 14th.
I miss her very much.
9/22/13, 4:08 PM  
Blogger Mumbles said...
They're terrorizing my family.
9/25/13, 7:26 PM  
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