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Joe Wilson: Healthcare Hypocrite
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by The_Cynic | September 18, 2009 at 07:51 am
167 views | 60 Recommendations | 5 comments
As we look deeper - something those on the right invariably do not - we see that many, if not all who sit on the GOP benches are, indeed, hypocrites when it comes to healthcareUSA.
Why, you ask?
Because - they are insured in the same way that Barack Obama wants the rest of Americans to be insured - yet consistently vote against the American people and they have the support of those who raise placards and clone themselves four fold.
Cut the man some slack. He's passionate! I know this because he told me, in the sole message that blazes across his campaign Web site: JOE WILSON IS PASSIONATE ABOUT STOPPING GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE!
Except that he's not—at least not when it comes to his, and his family's, government-run health care.
To be fair, Wilson has been consistent in his policymaking if not his personal life: according to his last congressional opponent, Wilson voted 11 times against health care for veterans in eight years, even as he voted "aye" for the Iraq War (during the debate on the war vote, he even called one Democrat "viscerally anti-American"—several times). He voted to cut veterans' benefits—not his own—to make room for President George W. Bush's tax cuts. He repeatedly voted for budgets that slashed funding to the Veterans Administration and TRICARE. And perhaps most bizarrely, he refused—repeatedly—to approve Democratic-led initiatives that would have extended TRICARE coverage to all reservists and National Guard members, even though a disproportionate number of them have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan─and many lost access to their civilian work benefits when they did so.
Now, I ask - why would that be? Cost? Seems that this is what is being said all along - the cost is just too great for the American economy - yet, those who say this also say that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan must continue.
Joe Wilson is now a hero to - well, Um, you know - those Americans on the right who have a distinct problem with a Democrat in the White House.
He is a hero of media making - not uncommon in the US I have to admit - but, I also have to admit, not quite for the right reasons either.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
at 09:13 on September 18th, 2009
You really have to question someone's level of compassion to vote against veterans benefits of any kind. It is curious how the cost of something like providing benefits for veterans can be questioned, when at the same time billions can be appropriated for a war.
at 11:39 on September 18th, 2009
might want to look at is co-sponsored legislation as well. You are missing a few things
at 20:19 on September 18th, 2009
Very good point. Many who are against government healthcare especially politicians who fight it adamently should have it thrown in their face how they recieve their coverage. And last I checked they recieve a very substantial level of care, thus leading to the conclusion such a switch would not effect the quality of care.
at 07:30 on September 19th, 2009
What a load of utter rubbish.
First off unless any and all Senators, Congressmen, Supreme Court Justices, The President, Vice-President, and sundry government officials are enrolled in the exact same health care plan that the current President is trying to foist on the American public - any or all of them that vote for it, campaigns for it, or speaks in favor of it is/are hypocrites.
Secondly, the 2009 budget for TRICARE is as follows:
$44.8 BILLION Medical Program
34.4 BILLION Defense Health Program
368 million Medical Military Construction
6.958 BILLION Medical Military Personnel
10.4 BILLION Medicare-Eligible Retiree Accrual Fund
I hardly think that his voting to cut spending shows lack of compassion - unless anything less than unlimited funding somehow defines "lack of compassion".
Lastly, to state or imply that the President or those in Congress "are insured in the same way that Barack Obama wants the rest of Americans to be insured" is a flat out falsehood. The government would go broke in a week if we were all insured the the way they are. They treat themselves as royalty at our expense. Most of them were fat cats that used their wealth, connections, and influence to get elected. Just ask Nancy Pelosi.
Ever see them asking us - their employer - for a raise??? Naw, they just vote themselves one on a regular basis - after midnight on the last day of session, so it gets forgotten before the next election. Ever hear them asking us if we want to enroll in their health care plan - at no cost??? O, it could happen! Likely on the same day Ahmadinejad announces the Holocaust really was a bad deal for the jews.
at 17:26 on September 19th, 2009
There is a huge difference between insuring a few hundred high officials and insuring 300 million people.