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July 19, 2007 at 15:21:04

Bush's Views On Health Care Make Me Sick

by Todd Huffman, M.D.     Page 1 of 1 page(s)

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I usually take extra time and care to craft my articles to the best of my present and always-in-the-need-of-improvement abilities, but today I simply have to vent.

About Bush.

About how his views on health care make me sick.

Last week, our Decider/Inquisitor/Commander Guy/Corporate and Religious Right Mouthpiece-in-chief made the incredibly callous and clueless remark that “people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.” 

Sure, and the rich and poor alike are free to sleep under bridges, too.

WTF? Was Bush’s line ad libbed, or did somebody actually write that line for him? My guess is the latter. The idea that “there is plenty of free health care in emergency rooms” has been tested, pushed, and refined by right-wing think tanks for several years. Last week, it finally percolated its way to the top, and blew out through Bush’s ignorant mouth.

Could Bush really believe that emergency rooms are a great way of providing medical care for poor people? If he does, then this statement is the latest in a long line of Republican presidential gaffes that reveal how utterly out of touch these bluebloods are with the reality of everyday life (as if we didn’t already know that, but couldn’t they at least just pretend?).

I’m paraphrasing, but first there was Reagan's line about unemployment, and how there really couldn’t be so much unemployment because all you have to do is read the want ads.

Then there was Poppa Bush, astounded by the bar code scanner in an average grocery store, and unable to come even up with a guess at the price of a gallon of milk.

What was it Molly Ivins, may her witty and wonderful soul rest in peace, once said? Something about too many years, and too many limousines?

Now I don’t want to go around seizin’ on every misquote or mistake that POTUS makes, for that would make for a whole lot of seizin’ (to everything there is a seizin’, so to speak), and I simply haven’t got that kind of time.

But our Compassionate Conservative-in-chief got my dander up again yesterday when he said he objected on philosophical grounds to a bipartisan Senate proposal to boost the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by $35 billion over five years by levying a 61-cent-a-pack increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes.

By threatening to veto the proposed legislation, Bush has essentially told the 6.6 million children currently covered by SCHIP, and the 3.3 million presently uninsured American children for whom these additional funds would be used to provide medical care, to “Go to the emergency room. Your care is free there.”

Mr. Bush apparently has no philosophical objections to the number of children equivalent to the entire population of the state of Oregon going without health care. Why should he? We all know that he also has no philosophical objections to the number of Iraqis he’s killed equivalent to the entire population of Austin, Texas.

After all, it has been made eminently clear these past six years that the ability of Mr. Bush and his ilk to care about life is inversely proportional to the number of cells something has. If we were raising the excise tax on cigarettes to protect one-hundred-celled blastocysts, well, then, that would be different.

 

www.strangeanimals.us

Todd Huffman is a pediatrician and writer living in Eugene, Oregon. He is a regular contributor to many newspapers and publications throughout the Pacific Northwest.

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None
skyreader7None

Killing or Is It Letting Children Die?: Both It Would Seem

Bush objects on philosophical grounds that saving children from disease and death is wrong. He will not spend a dime. Yet in Iraq he will spend billions killing human beings, even children whose only mistake is getting in the way. George Bush, the architect-of-death, sleeps good at night while the children call out in pain and suffering. Why do we tolerate this monster and his henchmen, the republican enablers. This means you, Kay Bailey Huchinson and John Cornyn.

by skyreader7 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 182 comments) on Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 7:42:42 PM
 


A writer is a rogue goose. All other gees fly in a flock formation; every goose knows his place and time for honking. The rogue goose is undisciplined. He leaves the formation indiscriminately to have a look at it from aside. He roams back and forth, takes a peep at the leader, honks a little bit from behind, distracts everyone and writes on what he sees. Time passes and as he wants to return back to his place he discovers someone else there. Thus he either has to wait until they land for rest...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Mark SashineA writer is a rogue goose. All other gees fly in a flock formation; every goose knows his place and time for honking. The rogue goose is undisciplined. He leaves the formation indiscriminately to have a look at it from aside. He roams back and forth, takes a peep at the leader, honks a little bit from behind, distracts everyone and writes on what he sees. Time passes and as he wants to return back to his place he discovers someone else there. Thus he either has to wait until they land for rest...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Bush does not have any views

on anything.  He does not know and does not care about the healthcare because  that is how  he was brought up.  A good- for -nothing drunk was cozied by a  wife- with -history and catapulted into  greasy politics.  He  is mad.  But those who put him there are not mad at all.  They know that he is  an ideal case  of promoter who  would promote anything, no questions asked. Here some commenters  say that ' Bush spends billions on Iraq'. Nope. We spend billions. Our Congress authorises the money.  Bush is just a patsie.  But he is our patsie. If,say  there were no guests on the official White House dinners as a protest  against Iraqi carnage, or if Oprah, the dearest would openly say that she would never invite Laura Bush on her show or if the White House press core stop going to those  idiotic briefings- then  we could complain. Otherwise... there is always ER.  Bush is  right:  everyone has access.

by Mark Sashine (46 articles, 19 quicklinks, 235 diaries, 3358 comments) on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 7:10:33 AM
 


Mr. Bohne is a clockmaker and activist. He HATES the US Government, and without stretching the truth (reality) will do anything to dig up dirt on any of these bastards, as long as it's REAL dirt.

"the first man to raise his fists, is the first man to run out of ideas."

tedbohneMr. Bohne is a clockmaker and activist. He HATES the US Government, and without stretching the truth (reality) will do anything to dig up dirt on any of these bastards, as long as it's REAL dirt.

"the first man to raise his fists, is the first man to run out of ideas."

Well, Doc.............

After 18 years as a paramedic, it is clear that the ED isn't free, taxpayers cover the cost.  That alone demonstrates how far departed from reality Little George is.  It further demonstrates utter contempt for taxpayers in that there is here an innate assumption that what ever it is, taxpayers can foot the bill.  I can't count the number of times I was called out late at night or early in the morning on what turned out to be something in the realm of clinical medicine, though in the eyes of the patient, was emergent.  A sort of dox in the box arrangement.  But one other thing is abundently clear Doctor, i've been visited twice by the Secret Service, Little George's Mukhabarat, for threatening that low life bastard.  Further, IF the day ever comes, and i'm confident it won't, where chickenshit Americans get off their fat pasty asses and TAKE little George and his playmates down, which it IS their right to do, I'll be among the first to pick up a weapon and ride out.  Will you?

by tedbohne (87 articles, 103 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 119 comments) on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 10:12:33 AM
 


Red stater, alas.
Lynette ClyRed stater, alas.

only it's all a lie

Emergency rooms will stabilize someone, but they don't provide treatment. They provide referrals to (nonexistent) "personal physicians" and prescriptions which the poor can't afford to fill.

 My stepdaughter was in an accident and broke her neck. They provided a stabilizing collar and the name of a doctor she should make an appointment with. Of course that doctor would not see her without insurance, so she has essentially had her neck broken and healed without any medical intervention, the result being constant, debilitating pain.

 Our system is entirely broken and I, too, wanted to throw up when I heard the fool who passes for president suggesting the emergency room for medical care. My contempt for him grows with his every utterance.

by Lynette Cly (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 7 comments) on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 10:14:26 AM
 


Joel S. Hirschhorn is the author of Delusional Democracy - Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government (www.delusionaldemocracy.com). His current political writings have been greatly influenced by working as a senior staffer for the U.S. Congress and for the National Governors Association. He advocates a Second American Revolution, beginning with an Article V Convention to propose constitutional amendments. He is Chair of the Independent Party of Maryland.
Joel S. HirschhornJoel S. Hirschhorn is the author of Delusional Democracy - Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government (www.delusionaldemocracy.com). His current political writings have been greatly influenced by working as a senior staffer for the U.S. Congress and for the National Governors Association. He advocates a Second American Revolution, beginning with an Article V Convention to propose constitutional amendments. He is Chair of the Independent Party of Maryland.

Whose God?

Bush proudly asserts that he is guided by God in what he does as president.  When someone does not want to accept reality/facts/science because they conflict with what they want to do they creat fictions; Bush is clinically delusional.  His professed belief in God makes a mockery of all religions and really puts Bush squarely in the camp of the insane muslims determined to kill and destroy whatever they oppose.  So Bush has no problem denying health care to American children, nor killing and maiming thousands and thousands of both American and Iraq citizens.  Nor does Bush have any problem in destroying all kinds of federal programs intended to protect the health and safety of Americans -- from protecting our food supply, our ports, our prescription drugs, and our borders.  Apparently Bush's God has not yet been able to communicate that respecting and honoring life means a whole lot more than being against abortions.  We need a constitutional amendment that provides a mechanism for removing an insane president; clearly relying on impeachment is insufficient.

by Joel S. Hirschhorn (116 articles, 22 quicklinks, 52 diaries, 469 comments) on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 10:27:21 AM
 


a citizen
tim bristola citizen

Modest proposal

Why not cut the uncooperative politicians out of the equation?

If enough physicians just provided their services for free,  the lack of insurance wouldn't be a problem

by tim bristol (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 28 comments) on Monday, July 23, 2007 at 12:56:53 PM
 

 

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