The GOP Death Panels – ‘Let them Die!’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Let's take a trip in Mr. Peabody's WABAC machine (or the hot tub time machine for those of you not old enough to remember Mr. Peabody), all the way back to 2010. Remember when Tea-Publicans ran for Congress saying they wanted to "repeal and replace Obamacare"?

The Tea-Publican House proposed and passed "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act" (H.R.2) in 2011, which promptly died in the Senate. Tea-Publicans have scheduled another symbolic vote to repeal "Obamacare" on July 11 when Congress returns from its 4th of July recess, which will also promptly die in the Senate.

What Tea-Publicans have not done is propose any alternative healthcare plan (that may be because "Obamacare" is their plan, until they attached Obama's name to it and disavowed it). Tea-Publicans and Willard "Mittens" Romney have been loathe to divulge any details of a "replacement" healthcare plan.

That is because the "replace" part of "repeal and replace Obamacare" was always a lie. They never had any intentions of replacing it with anything. They are happy with the status quo of our broken healthcare system.

The GOP and Mittens do, however, have the Tea Party healthcare plan: "Let them Die!" Remember during the "Survivor – GOP Presidential Primary" debate when Wolf Blitzer asked Ron Paul about how "society should respond if a healthy 30-year-old man who decided against buying health insurance suddenly goes into a coma and requires intensive care for six months — are you saying that society should just let him die?" To which the Tea-Publican audience responded with an enthusiastic "YEAH!" followed by laughter. Audience at tea party debate cheers leaving uninsured to die | Yahoo! News.

This is the replacement healthcare plan from the GOP and Mittens, folks — "Let them Die!" Remember all that crazy talk fom the Tea Party and their Queen, the Quitta from Wasilla Sarah Palin, about "death panels"? Well they are the "death panels" (a bit of psychological projection on their part).

This point was made clear by the Septegenarian Ninja Turtle Mitch McConnell on Fox News Sunday. Mitch McConnell: Covering 30 million uninsured is `not the issue’ – The Plum Line:

Pressed by Chris Wallace to say what he would do to insure the 30 million people who will get insurance under Obamacare, McConnell at first dodged the question, instead launching into a litany of complaints about the law. He repeated the debunked claim that it would cut $500 billion from Medicare. Asked the question again by Wallace, McConnell actually laughed, and said he’d “get to it in a minute,” before claiming the best thing we can do for the health system overall is to get rid of the law and all of its “cuts” to health providers. He labeled Obamacare a “monstrosity” and vowed that there would not be a “2,700 page” Republican reform bill.

Asked a third time how Republicans would insure those 30 million people, McConnell said: “That is not the issue. The question is how you can go step by step to improve the American health care system.”

The most charitable reading of McConnell’s quote is that he meant that Republicans see no need to come up up with a single overarching reform plan that would cover those millions of uninsured, and instead will advocate a step-by-step approach.

But even Wallace saw McConnell’s quote in far less charitable terms:

WALLACE: You don’t think the 30 million people who are uninsured is an issue?

MCCONNELL: Let me tell you what we’re not going to do. We’re not going to turn the American health care system into a western European system.

It’s worth pointing out that this is basically Mitt Romney’s position, too. The Romney campaign has acknowledged that he would not replace Obamacare with across-the-board protections for people with preexisting conditions. And the New York Times recently took a look at the alternatives Romney has proposed, and concluded that they would deemphasize the goal of “reducing the ranks of the uninsured.”

Republicans will try to continue to answer the core question on the table — if you repeal Obamacare, what would you replace it with? — by turning the focus back to the law itself. Republicans will continue, as they did in 2010, to run against Obama and Dems for cutting Medicare while simultaneously foisting a Big Government takeover on the health care system.

* * *

As the conversation turns to the specifics in the law, and to the fact that Republicans wouldn’t replace them with anything, Republicans’ best hope will be that the law’s generalized unpopularity will enable them to persuade the American people that the question of whose policies would actually cover the uninsured is “not the issue.”

"Let them Die!" — "and decrease the surplus population," as Ebeneezer Scrooge once said. GOP Governors May Turn Down $258 Billion In Obamacare Funds, Leave 9.2 Million Americans Uninsured | ThinkProgress: Not a single Republican governor has pledged to accept the new Medicaid funds and three Democrats are also considering turning down the money. In total, these states would give up $291.4 billion in federal funds and leave 10,297,221 Americans uninsured.

Another highlight from Sunday's program: Sen. McConnell On Whether The Massachusetts Mandate Is A Tax: Ask Romney | ThinkProgress:

HOST CHRIS WALLACE: You didn’t answer my direct question: If the Obama mandate is a tax on the middle class, is the Romney mandate a tax on the middle class?

MCCONNELL: Well, I think Governor Romney will have to speak for himself about what was done in Massachusetts.

Mittens' campaign answered the question today, and you can get the Septegenarian Ninja Turtle is pissed! Top Romney Adviser Breaks With Entire Republican Party: The Individual Mandate Is Not A Tax | ThinkProgress:

TODD: The governor does not believe the mandate is a tax — that’s what you’re saying?

FEHRNSTROM: The governor believes what we put in place in Massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the Court’s ruling that the mandate was a tax. […]

Way to step all over your GOP messaging, Mittens! He is trapped by "ObamneyCare." Rick "man on dog" Santorum was right: "Pick any other Republican in the country. [Romney] is the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama."