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At some point you have to wonder whether some of these Republicans have never had the misfortune of seeing a loved one suffer the medical and financial horror of dealing with many forms of cancer. Or, of course, there is a possibility they have a heart about 10 sizes too small, or perhaps they are pod people. I don’t know, but Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) would qualify as an example (Think Progress):
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told ThinkProgress that there “shouldn’t” be a law requiring businesses to cover employees who have cancer because that would “create an obligation” for others. “When you create a right for somebody,” Johnson said, “you create an obligation for somebody else, and then you’re taking away that person’s right.”
KEYES: I know Richard Murdock had said even though businesses should give people, for instance, with cancer, health coverage, they shouldn’t be legally required by the federal government.
JOHNSON: They shouldn’t. Listen, our rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And when we start expanding beyond that realm, when you create a right for somebody, you create an obligation for somebody else, and then you’re taking away that person’s right. And that maybe doesn’t seem all that great, but it’s just true. Our nation was based on the foundation of freedom and limited government.
Using this rationale for “employer rights” in this case could have been used to say slaveowner “rights” were being violated by telling them they could no longer own human beings in order to profit from their free labor. After all, they were “pursuing happiness” under “limited government.”
40 Comments
That’s so cold, the man is heartless.
Hard to believe this is the
moronguy that beat incumbent Russ Feingold a couple years ago.These politicians and their families are all millionaires. So no, they never had to worry about being bankrupted by medical bills.
Also, these assholes are simply sociopaths. They lack the capacity to feel empathy.
Subhuman is the only polite word that springs to mind. Polite and accurate. Sadly, it applies to far too many (heck, even one should be too many!) Republicans these days, all seemingly blinded by their desire to remove a non-white person from the White House.
Truly disgusting.
If I ever see one of these prions in person I’m throwing a bottle of holy water on them. I’m pretty sure they’ll melt.
THAT’S the guy who beat Feingold? Congratulations, Wisconsin, and welcome to the Confederacy.
I’m sure this is what Jesus would say.
It’s getting very difficult to defend the voters of Wisconsin. They not only elected this guy (and in the process voted Russ Feingold out of office) but also elected Scott Walker and recently voted not to recall the guy from office.
Then again, I live in Michigan, where the state Democratic Party is about as viable as the KMart Corporation. It’s only a matter of time before we acquire even worse representation in the Senate than the Dairy State has.
One of the problems our medical system has is not telling a stage 4 cancer patient that some drug that might give them a few more days of tortured life that costs several 100k is not worth the money. Thats why I thought the “death panels” of the ACA were a good thing.
You a raise a sensitive & difficult to discuss point. In some cases, the medical “system” is responsible, sometimes, for overly encouraging people to go to extreme measures to “prolong life.”
This played out on the national stage with the debacle re Terry Schiavo.
Now these weasels have realized that they’ve milked the so-called “sanctity of life” gravy train in terms of so-called “Republicans” being poseurs for this “concept” in order to appear to be in opposition to putative “Democrats” in order to pretend to be kowtowing to their dittoheaded base.
Now that it’s become far too expensive to push push push to extend “life” to the nth degree/second, suddenly so-called “Republicans” now get up on their high-horse and push the “rugged individualism” mantra about how, if you got Stage 4 Cancer, it’s your own damn fault, and figure it out and stop expecting “someone else” to pay for your treatments.
That more citizens don’t see through these lying scum tools is a mystery to me.
Utterly unsurprised, and anymore, beginning to feel (sorry to say) that WI residents are reaping the whirlwind of what they’ve sown.
I’d like point out that Senator Ron Johnson– and any family with him– spends a huge amount of time in Cancer Alley. So, he really should be far more compassionate to others just out of his own enlightened self interest.
Why is it that the politicos who most fervently champion family values, and vigorously uphold religious freedoms, are the ones who seem incapable of demonstrating compassion for those less fortunate in time of need?
He’s correct because there shouldn’t be a law to require businesses to provide any medical coverage to anybody. Only in America is this the case.
When there is such a requirement then the businesses become death panels because they are primarily in business to make a profit and not to provide medical care, particularly when government-mandated costs are rapidly escalating.
Yesterday, Mitch McConell when asked about the Republican plan for insuring 30 million said that wasn’t the issue. Ask a Republican about insuring the uninsured and they mumble something about lowering costs. The only Republican idea about lowering costs that I heard of is allowing insurers to sell policies across state lines. Great! Insurers will be able to find a state where they can bribe the legislature to have little or no standards. The insurer begins selling crappy policies across the nation. PROBLEM SOLVED! Of course, when the insured actually get sick, the policies won’t pay for anything, but they are insured.
Why don’t the Democrats take these comments by Republicans and blast them across the nation. I just don’t get it.
Imagine that you are now” free” to get cancer and die. But, please, do it quickly. Talk about death panels, now we have the constitution telling us you should die so as not to cause too much trouble for your meighbors right to be free. People with a chance for life must now die. And be quick about it.
Eventually the people will wake up and realize they have been played for complete idiots by a wholes like Johnson et al. Then the people will demand single payer universal health care and say phuck you to pricks like Johnson and the health insurance hot shots.
Intensely negative mental states/discursive thinking such as greed, hate and apathy, generate the corresponding emotional ones. Such actually diminishes the capacity for clear thinking, analysis and even the ability to perceive and act on real threats with creative, constructive solutions in the present moment when a skilful response is most needed. This is now scientifically substantiated fact supported by a composite of human and other animal research (in general, non-human animals are not subject to the placebo effect). Dr. Candice Pert is one of the people who has contributed to this field of investigation and has very accessible materials for lay persons regarding it.
When you vote for asshats like Walker and Johnson, you get what you asked for. These days that equates to what the Kochs paid for.
The “good” people of Wisconsin are in for a world of hurt. Karma baby!
Romney has more explain’in to do. Check out this Mother Jones article. This is not going to sit well with the bible thumpers.
One of my favorite law professors in grad school said something that has always stayed with me: “All rights come with responsibilities. No one has any rights unless everyone else has a responsibility to respect those rights.”
Ron Johnson has no clue how a civilized society actually works.
JOHNSON: Listen, our rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
and my right to life includes having access to healthcare that could extend my life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!
I guess this means that the taxpayer has the right to with hold treatment for politicians, and their families.I am all for that. And their pensions also. Might I also add that those medical insurance benifits are for the duration of the life of the politicians.
What Republicans really want to say is that if you don’t have insurance or don’t have the money to pay for treatment you should die. This is the “free market”. Even Ron Paul refused to take that position. What they do is dance around the question by talking about individual rights. If they ever said what they believe they would be going against 2000 yrs of Christian teaching. This would split off a signinficant chunk of their coalition.
BTW Joe the Jerk and Maria the Clueless said on CNBC this morning that capitalism is a “MORAL IMPERATIVE”.
Low voter turnout = Ron Johnson.
It’s shocking that Wisconsin voters have elected arrogant, thoughtless and uncaring people like Johnson, Scott Walker, et al. What happened to the state of LaFollette, Nelson, Lucey, Proxmire,and Feingold?! Pathetic.
Moral imperative, huh? Twenty five million looking for jobs, fifty milion in poverty and without healthcare. That’s morality?
Koch brothers happened along with their buddies the evangelicals, who hear voices from the other side.
I’m astonished to discover that the Confederacy Party is pro-slavery.
Stop these Lies now, our nation was most certainly not built on limited government, it was built to create EQUALITY. this fellow surely failed junior high history. This gov was formed to create equality and halt Lord/Serf relationships.
Bingo!
The founders preferred that only property owners be allowed to vote and designated blacks as being “equal” to 3/5ths of a person, while not outlawing slavery. That’s a strange interpretation of “equality”.
Because they’re “good Christians”.
Do you think they’ll repudiate the President who sold them out to the Health Insurance Industry after promising to fight for single-payer, universal Health Care?
Are you sure they didn’t tell the truth and say it was an “Amoral Imperative”?
As George Carlin said: We have no rights, only privileges, and they can be taken away anytime the PTB decide to.
You’re absolutely right. As an “employer” to Congress, I think we should totally be able to opt out of giving these guys medical coverage.
The NRA, seeking to help out their Republican friends who have been embarrassed about their lack of a plan to “replace” once they repeal, has come up with a new proposal for American health care.
It’s great. It costs very little. It will probably increase sales of guns and ammo. It will take the 2nd Amendment to all new heights.
They call it the “Old Yeller Plan.”
They call it the “Old Yeller Plan.”
ROLMFAO! Got a pinch of “cchaaww,” for my cheek and gum so I can spit that one out!!!!
Nice to see people using the slave owner’s analogy. About effen time……..
During the Nuremberg trials in 1946, an American psychologist spend hundreds of hours with the defendants to try to understand how they could commit such atrocities. At the end of the trial he said:”I now know what the essence of evil is. It is the lack of empathy.” This describes the scumbag Republicans perfectly.