Oh! The Inhumanity!

Last week, William Rivers Pitt took on those he calls “sick bastards.” The so-called Values Voters had just met.  They patted each other on the back, and atta-boyed and -girled each other.  The confab was populated with those believing themselves to be singularly virtuous.  However, they do not know the meaning of it. And so Pitt took his gloves off with the likes of Huckabee. So will I. You see, they define virtue very narrowly, along social conservative lines, which has little resemblance to virtue. No inconvenient or contradictory ideas are entertained.  No needy person need apply for sympathy (or, God, forbid, medical care).  No sick person deserves anything but to fend for themselves.  Think I exaggerate?  Keep reading.  

When Congressman Alan Grayson told you that these people had no medical plan except for people to die sooner, he was ripped by GOPher and Dem alike.  It turns out he was right. Even former minister Huckabee showed himself to be a sick, heartless individual. And, given what he said last week, that is going easy on him. Said Pitt:

Be polite to these people if that’s your nature. It is not in mine, especially after the display this past weekend. These people are the sick ones, the ones with pre-existing conditions, and they should be barred from holding public office by the voters because of it. They are all sick bastards, and I have no interest in being nice about it. Do you know anyone with heart trouble, cancer, diabetes, Parkinson’s, MS, or some other illness like these? Maybe Alzheimer’s?  If so, you shouldn’t be nice, either.

Here’s what Huckabee said, according to TPM:

“It sounds so good, and it’s such a warm message to say we’re not gonna deny anyone from a preexisting condition,” Huckabee explained at the Value Voters Summit today. “Look, I think that sounds terrific, but I want to ask you something from a common sense perspective. Suppose we applied that principle [to] our property insurance. And you can call your insurance agent and say, “I’d like to buy some insurance for my house.” He’d say, “Tell me about your house.” “Well sir, it burned down yesterday, but I’d like to insure it today.” And he’ll say, “I’m sorry, but we can’t insure it after it’s already burned.”

So, sick people are likened by Huckabee to a burned-down house.  In lieu of an honest proposal for insuring Americans, it’s survival of the fittest.

It all makes one wonder whether he has the decency to lead America. This is life and death for many people.  Yet even the more “kindly” among the GOP only support medical savings accounts.  

The Baucus bill went into effect this past week.  What it is is a bill written by the former VP of a health insurance company for Max Baucus.  It is not the Pelosi plan, fwiw, but that never kept a GOPher from falsely claiming that to be true.  There’s a competent female speaker of the house to demonize, after all.  The bill has some merit: An end to pre-existing conditions, an end to lifetime limits, more coverage for adult children struggling in today’s job market, etc.  The donut hole for seniors in Medicare Part D will gradually be closed. Efficiencies are increased.  More oversight will root out fraud.  But at its core this is Mitt-Care-gone national.  There isn’t any real public option.  It is private health insurance made easier to understand and to buy.  And the GOP would have you believe it is some radical change.  In the world they live in, anything benefiting the consumer is unacceptable, even a plan similar to one a fellow Republican  introduced in Massachusetts. Mitt Romney must be surprised to have to run from his own idea.  Pitty the candidate–in more ways than one.