Friday, March 19, 2010

"Life Panels" Maybe?

Sometime this week a clip surfaced which was taken at a rally held to protest the “health care reform” bill, showing a man incapacitated by Parkinson’s Disease being taunted unmercifully by protestors. It is a really sickening clip, and discredits the groups protesting the bill. Do we really have people in this nation who can display that level of inhumanity and cruelty? Obviously, we do and, equally obviously, they oppose even this weak form of “health care reform.”

One of the taunters was carrying a sign for “Americans for Prosperity” and Chris Matthews had a guy on his show yesterday named Tim Phillips who is, apparently, the leader of that group and an absolute asshole. Sorry for the bad word, but no other word adequately describes the man; “smug, arrogant” and “narrow minded” do part of it, but only that one sums him up.

Chris Matthews asks him what the guy with Parkinson’s should be doing, “What should he be doing? He‘s got Parkinson‘s. He‘s sitting on the ground there, engaged in this protest, to the extent he‘s able to. He can‘t stand up, obviously. He‘s got a placard here. He believes in the health care proposal of the president. Why is he different than you, except that he has a need that you don‘t have?”

Tim Phillips replies, “I recommend that he not support legislation where bureaucrat in this government may be deciding whether or not to cover his sickness, because they‘re going to be deciding that.”

Of course no “government bureaucrat” would be doing anything of the sort, but that guy in the clip probably wishes they would. Nobody is “deciding whether or not to cover his sickness” right now, and it is being left without coverage because nobody is making that consideration. Somebody damned well needs to make that consideration, don’t they? Maybe they would decide to cover it, and he would be better off than he is now.

Later, Phillips puffs himself up and huffs, “Here‘s the pitch I would make to him. Do you really want the government deciding whether your quality of life at your age and with the condition you have is worth saving?”

I think the guy would probably reply, “Oh, hell yes.”

1 comment:

  1. Arthur7:55 PM

    I would like to have a GOVERNMENT bureaucrat make that decisions, one governed by rules laid down by my representatives and requiring decisions be made in the public interest. Very much rather, when the alternative is a BUSINESS bureaucrat, who is trying to save his job by saving his company money!

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