DeMint:"I think health care is a privilege. I wouldn't call it a right."

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/aug/19/demint-offers-his-take-on-hot-issues/

DeMint: I think health care is a privilege. I wouldn't call it a right. ... I do think in our country and in any civil society there should be a safety net for basic health and food and shelter, but that doesn't mean that the whole system should be designed around the belief that people can't make their own decisions, can't be responsible for themselves. ... What we do need to do is make sure everybody has access to policies they can afford, own and keep. We're not doing that. What we've done is set up the whole system to reward employers for offering health insurance, but we don't support people who don't get their insurance at work, and that's not fair.

If a child is ill, health care is owed.

If an elder is ill, health care is owed.

Anyone, anyone at all, deserves medical attention when it is needed, no matter who it is, where they're from, what pre-existing conditions they carry, or anything else.

As to the least of these, then as to me, as What's-His-Name put it.

You're an asshole.

Turn the statement back on him. Why should the privelaged be the only ones with healthcare?

And we should revoke Demint's

These guys are obvious. Change the rules for congress and make them go out on the "open" market

Once he realized there should be a safety net for health (care) he moved it over to the right, not privilege, column.

The simple fact is that access to health care is NOT a "right".

However, since we all bear the burden of uncovered medical care, access to basic health care for all does make practical sense.



DeMint is just an idiot.

So, yes, I do know the category I placed America in.

I don't believe it's a "right".

Being very aware of the practicalities, however, I DO believe that it's the best practical option.

that call the police when you see a bum going through garbage cans for food

Not a right? That is pretty fucking uncivilized.

That's one cold mofo. :thumbsdown:

I said that I don't consider it a "right". I didn't say that I didn't believe that it was both equitable and necessary.

But it could be justice.

...but I'm not going to stipulate that any of us have a "right" to economic success.

My tax dollars at work.

My employer IS the federal government, however...so yes, the federal government does pay 2/3 of my health care premiums.

STFU.

Great.

Keep your own fucking airplanes from bumping into each other and we'll see where we stand.



Yes, that's an unfair stretch...but so is your "STFU" comment.


If "STFU" is the most insightful response you can muster, perhaps you should shut the fuck up.

The people who keep your plane from smashing into another plane get the same benefits as every other federal government employee...

Federal employees like him and DeMint are among the priviledged.

I am also a government employee, but I don't believe that makes me more worthy.
Coverage should be provided for everyone.

But I realize that I work for the people who are paying my salary and providing excellent medical coverage for myself and my family. I don't feel so special that they don't have a right to what I have.

I'll spare you the pain and just point to the relevant paragraph...

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

General welfare = health care.

It's a right, not a privilege. I'd sue the U.S. Government and point to the U.S. Constitution and take it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and have it defined.

Hawkeye-X

That may be your interpretation, but it's not the legal definition...and that fact kinda blows your "Constitutional rights" argument out of the water.

I'm waiting..

You're prolific here.

Perhaps you'd prefer to discuss this privately?

because that's what it boils down to

I think we need to withdraw the privilege of pensions and health care for our senators and congress.

What a jackass.

I suppose public education from grades 1 through 12 should be considered a privilege, too, one where people should make their own decisions and be responsible for themselves. There are no natural rights. Rights are determined by the will of the people and their social contract with their government, including the Constitution and congressional legislation.

Jefferson wanted to make it more clear by using more of the language of the House of Burgesses. General welfare can mean a lot

If I get sick or injured, I and my doctor get to make the decision on how I'm treated.

NOT some faceless bureaucrat in a 37 storey building across the country somewhere.

ME. And MY DOCTOR.

I have single payer health care. Ask ME how much "big, bad government" affects MY care.

ZERO, that's how much.

healthcare system because you have to wait 6 months to see a doctor when your appendix ruptures? Oh and I also heard today that you can't get a hip replacement after you turn 55. (There must be a lot of young people up there that need hip replacements to knock all those oldsters off the waiting list.) You also must be REAL tired of all of your paycheck going for taxes. What's it up to? 90% or is it 95%?

(I hope I don't need the :sarcasm: thingy)

That's the irony of it. With for-profit care, some faceless bureaucrat is making health decisions for us. But because it is FOR-PROFIT, moronic free-market indoctrinated Americans don't see that as a problem. Making people's health decisions for them is only a problem when eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil government does it.

Except that under single-payer, government DOES NOT do it. But hey, what's a tiny detail like that to stand in the way of willful ignorance?

Jesus, this situation is frustrating.

But I can say I sympathize.

It puzzles me to no end why people in America aren't out in the streets, screaming for a better system.

Screaming *against* a better system.

Or at least that's the picture the media wants to paint by covering these staged "town halls."

Signs and wonders, people. Signs and wonders.

I've been trying to tell the nuts on the conspiracy sites that, with proof, for months now. It get me banned. They don't want it because their hate gets in the way.

because she couldn't afford any prenatal care is a criminal? How do these clowns manage to reconcile all of their positions?

Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Article 25.

* (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

I have had for a long time a simple metaphoric view of society. A Society is like a large complex organism. An Organism are made up of cells, society is made up of people. The organism must care for all its cells; it can't ignore some and hope they go away. If an organism is injured, it either heals itself, or it dies.

Society must take care of all its people, to keep them healthy. To this end, there are three basic needs of each and every person that must be met by society. Every member of a society has an absolute right to food, shelter, and health care. If there are people for whom one of these is denied, they sicken and perhaps die. This causes society to sicken.

We live in a very sick society now. There are millions or tens of millions who are not receiving any, or adequate, food, shelter, or health care. It is the job of our government to see to it this is fixed. President Obama and the Democrats in congress are trying, but at this point the Republicans are trying harder.

Jim DeMint is a fool, and he and his ilk are the real enemies of the people of the United States. They want to keep the sick status quo so that they and their rich friends can keep a disproportionate share of society's resources for themselves, while shorting everyone else. This is analogous to what cancer does. Like a cancer needing to cut out of an organism, so do they need to be cut out of their positions of power.

This cutting out process has started. The 2006 and 2008 elections began the Republican's march toward powerlessness and irrelevancy. I hope the same thing happens again in 2010. A lot will depend on whether the administration and the Democrats in congress continue to try and negotiate with the Republicans. This is a waste of time and must be stopped. It will also depend on the administration taking the lead in the debate and doing a better job in getting its message out.

:eyes:

Even giving health care to a fetus would go to far for Rethugs.

fewer cells...

:P

you're home free.

OKAY!!!!

SENATOR DEMINT! Opt our of you government sponsored health care plan and see how long it takes for you to get private coverage with all of the pre-existing conditions you probably have at your age. And being insane doesn't count.

Maybe your cholesterol is a bit high.

Maybe your blood pressure is outside the 'normal' range.

Maybe you have a history of diabetes in your family.

Maybe you had a 'suspicious spot' removed 17 years ago.

Maybe you have a history of heart disease in your family.


KNOCK YOURSELF OUT in trying to get coverage that isn't prohibitively expensive, even on your salary.

Go for it.

I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU!

Mz Pip

clued him in yet, but life isn't fair. People do have a right to expect their government to help them stay well and to help pick up the pieces if they can't stay well. Where else are you supposed to turn when there are no other options to choose from? To the profiteers who helped dig the hole you're standing in originally? Yeah, sure, like the insurance companies are going to wake up one day and become helpful. I have about as much chance of being hit by a meteor as to have that happen.

I would like to remind DeMint the dirtbag, that people don't make their own decisions about being sick. I didn't ask to contract Multiple Sclerosis. My husband didn't ask to contract the MRSA which nearly killed him. Sickness and injuries are sudden unplanned events in the "shit happens" category. Anyone can get sick. Anyone can become disabled, even DeMint. He is obviously up in some bone headed La La land where there is no reality and everything that happens in life can be planned.

I read a quotation once from a woman who had contracted a terrible, degenerative disease. She said that for the longest time she kept thinking, "Why me? Why me?" Then the very randomness of life struck her and changed her question to, "Why not me?" Life is full of confusion and chaos. You plan what you can, but most things come and smack you upside the head whether you plan them or not.

Moreover, what does one have to do to gain or lose that privilege.

Absolute callousness.

"promoting the general welfare" - I think health care would be a right, not a privelege, asshole. Go to your nearest HR office and turn in your insurance card.

Then go try to buy one.

Hawkeye-X

I guess we should strip him of his publicly funded healthcare. No wait he's priveleged right? And the rest of us are worthless.. When ever I hear this crap it really pisses me off.

I wonder how long he will survive if one of the wacko militias mushrooming in this country start taking over water supplies?

To Dimwitt. It's more appropriate.

A privilege meaning the person has to do everything right, making one mistake and the privilege is taken away and the miscreant spanked? :spray:

What about external influences, such as idiot chiropractors or other doctors, who can fuck up a person's life royally and make recuperation difficult?

Hell, one diagnosis of asthma and a person is branded for life.

It is a RIGHT.

DeMint is DaFoolOfDaYear.

Why can't I have it?!?!?!