What Happened To The Anti-Death Panel Tea Partiers?

Image of an angry mob
The Tea Party Death Panel

The last two cheap labor Republican debates have attracted a crowd that is part ugly and douchebaggery in the extreme. In the debate last week the largest cheer was when it was pointed out that Governor Rick Perry oversaw 234 executions. Monday night Ron Paul got applause and someone shouted out “Yes” when he was asked if someone without health insurance should be allowed to die, and Michelle Bachmann tried to claim a cancer vaccine caused brain damage. Is this what we have become? Really? 

Teapublicans cheer death for uninsured (09/12/2011)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Am2bWQRNw

Wasn’t it just last summer that these freedom loving Tea party people were strongly opposed to what they called death panels they thought was in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and now it seems they want their own death panels.

Paul didn’t actually dispute the crowd’s reaction but instead talked about “the good old days” when churches and the community took care of the sick who couldn’t afford medical care.

Paul, a Baptist, referred to his early career working at the Santa Rosa hospital in San Antonio, where churches helped cover costs of needy patients so the Catholic system “never turned anybody away.”

“We’ve given up on this concept that we might assume responsibility for ourselves, that our neighbors, our friends, our churches would do it,” said Paul, an opponent to federal healthcare as well Medicaid and Medicare plans.

Tea partiers cheer to let uninsured die, Ron Paul says let churches help

There is NO difference between the government paying for those who can’t pay and Paul’s ideal of community help. Of course he would say his ideal is voluntary and by the reaction of the crowd it is exactly why the government should do it and not the community. The government doesn’t make personal biased decisions on who needs and gets care. Federal law doesn’t allow selective treatment. You show up at a hospital that gets federal funds and they HAVE to treat you.

Uninsured people have the largest impact on health care costs today and those costs are passed on to every body – insured or not. Most states require auto insurance because they had too many uninsured drivers costing the rest of us money. Why doesn’t that same view fit for healthcare?

I understand Paul’s idea about people being responsible for themselves but also people can and do make stupid choices because they think they won’t ever get sick or need major medical help. Shit happens. Why should people be penalized for that?

Republicans Cheer Texas Death Penalty at GOP Debate 09/07/2011)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocKFSLsZnUo

If I were Governor Perry I wouldn’t go around gloating that you helped execute 234 people especially if one of those executed was actually innocent and Perry knew it.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for allegedly setting a fire that killed his three daughters 13 years earlier. Willingham maintained his innocence until the end — even refusing an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence — and the arson investigation used by investigators to convict him was questioned by leading experts before his execution.

However, according to multiple reports, Perry intervened in the forensic process, replacing three members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission to keep the execution moving forward. He refused a stay of execution, despite mounting evidence that questioned Willingham’s guilt.

Since 2004, the Innocence Project reports evidence in the case had led to the inescapable conclusion that Willingham did not set the fire in question.

Rick Perry Execution Record: Is it Really Something to Be Proud Of?

That and advances in DNA technology make executing innocent people even more unethical than the death penalty currently is.

Then we have poor Michele Bachmann who claimed, without any actual evidence, that the HPV vaccine caused “mental retardation”.

GOP front runner Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) got thoroughly beat-up by his fellow candidates at last night’s CNN/Tea Party debate over his executive order mandating that girls in Texas receive the HPV vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) had a particularly ferocious response, saying, “To have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat out wrong.” Bachmann also sent out a letter to supporters reiterating her claim during the debate that as a mother, she’s “offended” by Perry’s decision.

After the debate, she took her attack one step further and said she had met with a mother who told her “that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter.” “This is the very real concern and people have to draw their own conclusions,” she added. 

Perry Accuses Bachmann Of Peddling Conspiracy Theories: HPV Vaccine Does Not Cause Mental Retardation

I’m all for as much freedom and liberty as I can get but sometimes people make stupid choices like calling a vaccine immoral – that view point has hurt people unnecessarily. Why would you want to keep your own child away from a vaccine that will keep them from dying an early death.

We allow all kinds of people to be parents – like Michelle Bachmann – who probably shouldn’t be parents. The worse thing you could do is keep your child from needed medical treatment just because the government shouldn’t be telling you what to do. In polite company you, would say a parent who does that has brain damage.

My head hurts…