Ron Paul Attacked for Views on Health Care
Ron Paul’s views on health care came under fire tonight at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, where his position on eliminating Medicaid was met with open hostility from the audience.
Paul has called for the eventual elimination of Medicare and Medicaid and has suggested that charity hospitals should pick up the slack for the uninsured. That view got one woman in Manchester up in arms.
“Thirty three percent of the children in the U.S. are on Medicaid and another 10 percent are uninsured,” the woman said. “You have offered charity by doctors as a solution to this. Do you really think that 43 percent of America’s children will be taken care of by charity?”
Paul said that his current budget preserves the program, but it would eventually be phased out because of the unsustainable cost. Paul added that when he worked in a charity hospital in the 1960s nobody was turned away.
“I really want to promote these medical savings accounts so people can put their money aside and get it off their taxes, and buy their own insurance and pay cash to their doctors,” Paul said.
As the congressman was finishing his answer, another woman in the audience shouted, “What about the 43 percent?”
Paul, seemingly taken off guard, shot back, “You mean when? Right now?”
“I described this transition,” Paul responded over the voice of the woman.
“Why not look at how the country looked before 1965. Maybe it wouldn’t cost so much,” Paul said.
Paul’s voice then picked up as he stared at the woman and added, “It sounds like you’re cold hearted, you don’t care about people.”
“It’s all going down the tubes if we don’t do something about it too soon,” Paul said.
This isn’t the first time Paul was questioned about his views on health care. At a recent GOP debate, Paul was asked a hypothetical question about whether an uninsured 30-year-old working man in coma should be treated.
“What he should do is whatever he wants to do and assume responsibility for himself,” Paul responded, adding, “That’s what freedom is all about, taking your own risk. This whole idea that you have to compare and take care of everybody…”
The audience erupted into cheers, cutting off the congressman’s sentence.
After a pause, Paul was asked, “Congressman, are you saying that society should just let him die?” to which a small number of audience members shouted, “Yeah!”
Paul, a doctor trained in obstetrics and gynecology, said that when he got out of medical school in the 1960s “the churches took care of them.”
“We never turned anybody away from the hospital,” he said. “We’ve given up on this whole concept that we might take care of ourselves or assume responsibility for ourselves. Our neighbors, our friends, our churches would do it. That’s the reason the cost is so high.
ARTICLE: Why Ron Paul Cannot Win.
This is a serious letter to the many Paul bots that scour this blog, looking for a glimmer of hope that anti-war or anti-drug law leftists can be converted into the fold. I admire your devotion to your candidate, although, at the same time you have already labeled me an Obama-bot, a proud mindless drone beholden to the Republicrats in your mind. Well, think what you will, but I can give you a run down of why it is that Ron Paul will not win the GOP primary, and even if by some miracle he did, would never beat Obama in an election. It’s not possible.
Your first hurdle is to get past other Republicans. Seriously. This has always been your main struggle. Your alliance with theocrats and fascists has always been a tenuous one, I know. Rachel Maddow pointed out just how looked down upon Ron Paul is on FOX News, which is the mouthpiece of the Republican establishment. Yes, it is disgusting how it is that he is treated for his views. I would like you to notice, however, that liberals usually are the ones pointing this out and have him on their shows, ala the Jay Leno, etc. We can’t be trying to suck you into our Orwellian big government and at the same time host you on our shows and let you speak your piece. To Republicans, Ron Paul is essentially mistrusted as not having the proper bona fides to keep gays from living happy lives, exterminating Muslims, defending Israel until the Sky God returns, and making sure that drugs are only used by rich people while the poor are converted into money for the privatized prison system. Yes, I heart his stance on foreign policy and his stance on the war on drugs makes me giddy (see the intellectual honesty?) , but I do find everything else unworkable and shocking. The thing is though, you don’t have to convince me of anything, you have to convince the theocrats and the fascists, and they are having none of you.
See, I knew the Tea Party thing was a complete hoax from the beginning in terms of their being “real conservatives.” You are absolutely correct when you say Paul is a consistent far right candidate truly evocative of what conservatism is in its purest form. This is why the teabaggers will never go for you. Your ability to ignore crazy when it is not directly linked to the government is astounding. Maybe Republican style hypocrisy has to be laid bare for you to finally understand it, but these people do not really care about the deficit, nor do they care about the country. Well, they do care about their country, because in their minds, the country is only made up of people they agree with, who are in the “in” group in terms of religion, ethnicity, and adherence to their world view. Michele Bachmann is their hero, not Paul. The man who heckled Elizabeth Warren, saying that the Tea Party was originally against Wall Street, is more indicative of the dissonance you have to contend with. The Tea Party has not stopped home foreclosures, they have not called on anyone on Wall Street to be prosecuted, and their solution is to just continue letting banksters do more of what they did to get us in this mess. I mean, if you needed a starker demonstration of the intellectual dishonesty of your would-be allies, the head of Teabagger Nation went on Martin Bashir’s show and thought Newt Gingrich was great; a Washington outsider who was an historian for Fannie and Freddie and a true conservative. Tea Party thumbs up!
W T F
So, I do not see how you go into New Hampshire and sell Paul. Yeah, he won some straw poll for young republicans; no surprises there. But those things are not indicative of anyone’s future performance and Romney out-polls him by a crushing margin. And frankly, I have no clue how you are going to sell him to the theocratic fascists in South Carolina. Sure, they get off hearing about ending Social Security, but if they do not see Ron Paul in Israel genuflecting before Netanyahu, then they are not going to be satisfied. Pat Robertson is going to dig through old videos and remind people that not banning gay people on a federal level is bad. By the way, his comments on Jay Leno were spot on, but they pissed people off (although they made me smile!). Not that Michele Bachmann has a lot of supporters, but essentially he was declaring himself sane, which doesn’t go over well with Republican primary voters. I really commend you for trying to customize his campaign for the Iowans by reminding them that Paul loves babies, Jesus, and will allow them to live free from Negros. It really shows your dedication and love of your candidate, but sadly, even if he wins there it is not going to translate to people who are more hardcore than the state where they hate government, but stuff their faces with farm subsidies.
Now, I know you say he transcends people’s ideologies, backgrounds, and he is an ideas candidate. That really is all very refreshing and I am sure there are people on your forums that help you think this way. I’m sure there are disaffected Obama voters and super anti war progressives who have joined your ranks for a tentative alliance, and who most likely do not care all that much about social programs or have yet to hear him talk at length about people carrying gold ingots to the marketplace in wheelbarrows. But know this: they are not like you. If Ron Paul is not up, they are not going to stay home and protest voting for a RINO, they will go for Obama as the candidate of last resort, so I wouldn’t trust too much in these people allying with you. Heck, I was one of you until I heard Paul thought Medicare was unconstitutional despite the fact it was deemed constitutional.
Now, let’s say that you really work it, you really undo the effect of FOX News in South Carolina and Florida. I say this because FOX is really your enemy; the actual liberal people on MSNBC will actually talk about him once they see that he is doing well in the polls and not in a necessarily dismissive tone. Let’s say Paul gets the Republican nomination by sweeping aside Karl Rove, the Bushes, most of the Super Christian organizations who want gay people carted away to reeducation facilities, and stands toe to toe with Obama. I’m sorry, but now you’ve got an even harder fight on your hands. The Republicans will probably revolt, and the Tea Baggers, fearing that a decisive blow to the non-Whites will not be given by Paul, will prolly run a third party candidate. Then, you have to pretty much defend ending Medicare, Social Security, no student loans, and not putting regulations on Wall Street banksters to the general public. Killing Medicare does not go well. It did not go well for Paul Ryan and it will not go well for you. Your strategy would then be to hand wave over those things, and talk about the wars. Well, Obama ended one of them, and while being patient on waiting for the economy is a hard sell for him, it is a much easier sell to say “Look, I ended one war, and I’m doing it responsibly just as I promised on the campaign trail.” Centrists will lean with the person that doesn’t radicalize things out of a sense of feeling responsible, and then Paul gets his ass handed to him on election day. Oh, and by the way, switching to a gold standard would send the economy into a tailspin, as Paul himself has said, so that’s not really on the agenda at all.
You constantly deride others, especially Obama supporters, for being enthralled with a candidate like a gaggle of wild animals, incapable of rational, dispassionate thought and instead running towards our world leaders like rock stars who will bring the cargo. Well, I hate to say this, but you do the exact same thing. You are just as rabid, just as fanatical, just as willing to believe that one man will change the course of history and sweep aside all of the darkness plaguing you. You envision him being assassinated for going up against the Fed or the industrial military complex, or that he is the candidate that will bring peace where Obama only brings war. I hate to break this to you, but a lot of people in this country aren’t actually against war per se, they just don’t like being lied to. I’m young as well, so I know why it is you feel so inspired and are willing to really work so hard to get him in, and you really believe that he is the “only one” talking about X, Y, and Z. Well, this is where the idealism train has to end. Whether you think it is logical or not, whether or not you think that Americans will wake up and suddenly become rational automatons or have a mass conversion to your political religion, you are dealing with Americans as they are.
Ron Paul is a peice of shit. If you think Obama is bad imagine this country run by Ron Paul.
-No environmental protection.
-state laws. So depending where you live, the laws can be totally different. Your state might choose to be a Christian state or choose not to require Miranda rights, and it would be 100% legal.
-Ron Paul supports good ideas like legalizing marijuana, and he not being in combat but he also supports a the right for a business to not serve people based on their ethnicity or race.
-Ron Paul supports nuclear power plants and drilling. He also wants to sell landmarks and protected wild life areas. He would ban the EPA.
-Ron Paul also supports the right to carry guns in to schools and aboard air planes to make the world a safer place.
-Ron Paul would get rid of the FDA and does not believe that food should be regulated.
-Ron Paul would get rid of social security. If you lose your job, or when your grandparents or parents fall ill and cannot work- good luck with that.
-Ron Paul would get rid of the 14th amendment. If you were born here and your parents are illegal citizens then he would have you deported as well. Even though this is protected by the constitution and even though he likes to promote himself as the king of the the constitution.
-Ron Paul would get rid of the department of education. If you’re a teacher, I’m sorry. Ron Paul thinks children do better in homeshooling. If you’re a parent that works, have fun balancing that. I’m sorry but you would have to pay for your child’s education or quit your job and homeschool your child.
-Ron Paul does not support a women’s right to choose or planned parenthood. He would get rid of them both. He also beliees in abstinance education only.
-Ron Paul thinks there is a war on Christmas and wants the country to be more Christian. If you are Muslim, Jewish, Hindi or anything other than Christian then welcome to Jesus.
-Ron Paul does not support same sex marriage or gay adoption. He made two bills to enforce DOMA but he likes to vote against these bills so that he can say he supports both. He also wants to crate sodomy laws. I’m sorry LGBT. Ron Paul does not support you, but he will be sure to say everyone is entitled to freedom. Just not the freedom you and I consider equal.
-Ron Paul does not support hate crime laws or sexual harassment laws. It’s not the government’s problem and he doesn’t want to pay for silly laws that protect your rights. He is against the civil rights act of 1964.
-Ron Paul has lots of white supremacists that follow his vision which should be a red flag to anyone who is against groups like the KKK.
-Ron Paul also denies writing newsletters filled with conspiracy ideas about government, racist ideas about black people, jews and gay people. They were all written in his name and published for over 30 years. Even to this day he claims he does not know who authored the letters which were signed, and made to seem as those he wrote them. he made a couple million dollars off of these vile writings and they were published by his own dinky company which he ran from his home according to disclosure papers. Ron Paul is not very comfortable talkiong about this and I personally beleive he’s not being honest.
-Ron Paul would get rid of the amber alert. Watch your kids..
-Ron Paul does not believe in climate change or global warming so lets hope every single person in America does their part. I’m sure they will.
-Ron Paul wants to be president but he doesn’t want to control you. Only if you are a woman, or a part of the LGBT community. But he will tell you he loves every single one of you and so will his cult of fans who care more about the investment they put in to his rhetoric then his actual plan and history with racism.
Ron Paul is not a leader. He would not protect or support you. He is all hype and his following is very.. just very.
Ron Paul is not the answer for America. He is good at presenting himself as a little old man hero but if you look in to things it’s the opposite. Don’t fall for the propaganda and misguided fans. He is poison.
