Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Congress / Politics / Woods Brawlin' in the 'Boro: No Death Panel for My Mother, Gordon Tells Town Hall
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 7:47 AM
"My daughter has cerebral palsy and this is going to deny treatment to her because she's not viable," Brad Turner of Smyrna told Gordon. "I'm telling you right now she's the most viable person I've met and she's the biggest fighter I've ever met in my life. Government's not the solution. It's the biggest problem. I don't know why for the life of me people would want toy turn over their health care to an entity that took five days to get water to the Superdome after a hurricane. I'm busting my rear to take care of my daughter. It's not the government's responsibility. It's mine."Gordon was ready with a response:
"Brad, my mother is 83 years old. She had an aorta valve replacement less than a year ago. She's a breast cancer survivor. If there was some type of a death panel, she would be knocking on the door. I'm opposed to anything that's anywhere close to rationing or any type of a death panel, for your daughter, or for my mother or for anyone else."
Comments (13)
Showing 1-13 of 13
like
dislike
Given private insurers' propensity not to cover people with chronic and serious health conditions, I seriously wonder who "Brad" thinks is helping subsidize his daughter's care.
And I might add, I'm perfectly happy if my tax dollars are doing that, regardless of her father. Seems I heard somewhere that it takes a village, and I'm glad to live in the village.
I just read the account in the murfreesboro paper and the very first paragraph is about a 73 year old guy saying he doesn't want socialized medicine. The crack reporter didn't bother to sidle up to him and ask him if he was on Medicare and apparently neither did Bart. This whole thing is damned scary.
Agreed, Stella. how many codgers are NOT on Medicare. The way it works, even affluent codgers are crazy not to enroll in it when they're eligible. Same with Social Security the way it's currently set up, without a means test.
The lack of knowledge among some of these yahoos is just astounding to me.
Here's a good video from the White House that addresses "Death Panels"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/7
Brad Turner mentioned nothing about a death panel. He only took responsibility for his daughters healthcare and asked why it should be the governements responsibility. Mr. Gordon's response answered not the question of Mr. Turner. Instead Mr. Gordon answered Mr. Turner in a way that makes him look like an idiot republican whose arguement attempts have failed in recent discussions regarding the proposed government run health car plan. Mr. Turner was simply asking why should he trust his government whose history shows failure when attempting to create government run benefits.
Benefits are something that the government should stay out of. The best example of the governements attempt to create a nation wide benefit is social security. It makes me sick to see the amount of money taken out of my check every 2 weeks for social security knowing that if lucky I will see only a small fraction of that one day. Our government is not one to be trusted. With our debt in the trillions they will find somewhere else to spend tax dollars and slowly but surely this government run healthcare will fail.
Kenny, I'm curious. People in countries with various forms of gov't intervention in medical insurance and/or care are healthier, by all measures, than US citizens. Pregnant women get better care, have fewer delivery problems, less infant death. And when people there get sick, say with heart disease or diabetes, they have better outcomes than we do here. Life expectancy is higher in those places than it is here. In other words, gov't intervention in healthcare works in those places. Why do you think that we in the US are so much less organized or skillful or able to run gov't programs than anyone else in the industrialized world that we are bound to fail at what everyone else does so well?
Kenny G. -- You're correct that if you're lucky you likely will see only a fraction of what you put into Social Security. SS is not simply a government retirement program, however. If you are UNlucky, and die or become disabled, then your family is likely to receive many times more than what you've put in the system. As I understand it anyway -- and I'm frankly not as informed as I should be, so I'm open to being corrected on this issue.
My mother attended a health care town hall meeting with her Congressman in a rural town in the upper-midwest. While there we're passionate people from both sides of the debate in attendance she said the meeting was cordial and calm.
Why are people here in TN acting so crazy?
Good luck to Bart Gordon. That is a very swing district. You've got academic liberals and young folks at MTSU, some yellow dog Democrats, and a number of Republicans in the rest of the district. Good luck to him in whatever he decides to vote.
In contrast, next door, Jim Cooper votes as conservatively as Gordon. And at least Gordon doesn't block things AND is willing to hold town meetings with his constituents of all stripes. Cooper only meets with conservatives, and has spent nearly 20 years blocking universal health care coverage.
Boot Coop!
Because this is the South, where the GOP has been taken over by angry white people too intellectually challenged to realize that their ire is misdirected and who are dead set on overturning -- by mob rule -- the results of last November's election, in which a clear majority of voters natioinally spoke loudly and clearly about what they wanted.
That and our Scots-Irish ancestry: we never miss an opportunity to bluster.
Ha @Uriah! They totally think health care reform is "A Modest Proposal" but for serious!
Brad Turner said at the town hall:
"I don't know why for the life of me people would want toy turn over their health care to an entity that took five days to get water to the Superdome after a hurricane."
Hey Brad -- there's a new sheriff in town. The disaster in New Orleans happened because Conservatives are poor managers and can't run the government. Remember, these are the people that ignored a security report that warned that Bin Laden would attack the United States, they attacked the wrong country (and lost), they never caught Bin Laden, and of course, they wrecked the economy. We never had these kinds of epic screw-ups from Democratic administrations.
Don't hold the Democrats and Obama responsible for the failures of Republican governing. Government is only as good (or bad) as the people who run it and you should have confidence that any healthcare reform passed by the Democrats will be well run and fair... at least until Republicans get in charge of it. Which is why they should never be put in charge.
