Email exchange

To Ted: "Steve King in a public meeting today said and 200 people at the meeting agreed:

'Health care is a privilege not a right.'~Rep. Steve King (R), Iowa

Do we let them die in the street. No i do not thinks so. What is Steve's answer to an elderly person with out health insurance die in the street. Do we let a young women with a problem pregnancy miscarriage because of lack of heath insurance."

Ted's Reply: "Isn't that the great irony? Protect the unborn from abortion, but once you're born you're on your own. Don't teach Darwin in our schools, but practice Social-Darwinism all day long."

Survival of the fittest, if you're not rich enough or smart enough or lucky enough to get good insurance, better to let you suffer, you must deserve it. How about if conservatives and liberals agree that we need to work together to make things better for everybody? Pre-born and post-born, young/and elderly, affluent and struggling. I wish that the folks who are so opposed to reform (often- ironically- who use and want to protect Medicare) would think back to what it was like in the 60's when Johnson was working on getting Medicare. Then Gubernatorial CANDIDATE Ronald Reagan tried to scare people into believing that Medicare was the first step toward SOCIALISM and it would be a slippery slope toward no longer being a free society.

Here's what I'd love to see- Steve King propose an alternative to the Demorcat's plans.
Teddy Roosevelt had a word for it, "Muckruckers." People who rake the muck, stir the shit, but don't shovel it- quick to criticize and condemn, but don't offer any other solutions.

Here's a proposal that Iowa Republicans King and Grassley are more than welcome to call their own and take credit for- put all Iowa public school teachers into the same insurance pool with other state employees. The more members of a plan, the less the risk and the lower the cost!

Offer me that and I'll back off of supporting a national plan with a public option because I'll be taken care of. Meanwhile the deductions to pay for Welmark are practically half my monthly paycheck yet my copays and precription costs are way higher than they were under Principal last year and Welmark won't cover as many things as Principal used to.

And there's my brother and sister-in-law. They never know when they might get laid off because their company just went bankrupt. My 7 year old nephew went to the doctor yesterday and might have pneumonia. And don't forget the threat of H1N1 this year.

How can anyone continue to defend Steve King when he says idiotic things tike this? Listen, ether he's a jerk or a fool. This isn't just his opinion or a different philosophy. A privilege not a right? Then we should revoke his privilege to Congressional benefits like Government health care. I'd like to revoke his privilege to a Congressional salary, but we can't seem to get anyone strong enough to run against him in the 5th District.

How can the same people that claim to believe in a "right to life" say that health care is not a right? So, potential death, suffering, and poor quality of life due to injury, illness, or other health conditions shouldn't be prevented? That's not a human right?