Not one of the conservative fat cats on Fox News’ The Five had a problem with the prospect of millions of Americans losing health insurance after Republican repeal Obamacare. In the words of cohost Greg Gutfeld, “You gotta just respond with ‘So what?’”
Predictably, the Republican cheering squad on The Five couldn’t have been more delighted that their guys in Congress have passed a budget resolution that provides a pathway to repeal Obamacare and strip health insurance from millions of Americans. As Vox explains, Republican plans generally make coverage better for younger, healthier people and worse for older, sicker ones. Also, millions would lose health insurance coverage altogether.
The discussion on yesterday’s The Five began with a clip showing Senate Democrats protesting the Republican resolution. Cohost Kimberly Guilfoyle cackled with delight offscreen.
Gutfeld and Guilfoyle sounded giddy at the prospect of millions losing health insurance (transcript partially via Media Matters):
GUTFELD: The hope on the left is that when you are demonized, you will lose your nerve. The moment that the left calls you "mean" then you go, “Oh wait a minute, maybe we should just keep things the way they are,” but you gotta—you gotta just respond with “So what?”
Do not feel guilty about burning this crap to the ground, destroying this entire thing, because you have one thing to remember. It was a 2,700 page bill, no one read it. They didn’t give you the time, the respect to read the bill, you don’t owe them the restraint when you destroy this thing. They took your doctor, they took your healthcare, they took your money, it was a redistribution plan. These politicians spend more time vetting their hotel rooms, checking their mini bars, than they did on on this bill, so screw them.
You should feel no shame burning this bill to the ground. Sorry.
[…] So, repeal or replace, don’t worry about it. Just destroy it.
GUILFOYLE: That was so exhilarating.
Later in the discussion, Gutfeld pretended that supporting a health care free market would “out-compassion” those who support Obamacare.
GUTFELD (smirking): The question is, how do you counter the stereotypical counterpunch – you know, “Republicans are harming people” by taking something away? You have to out-compassion them. You have to say, “You know? What system has worked with every commodity, from technology to food to transportation? The free market. The invisible hand of the free market, free enterprise, beats the gnawing hand of government.”
Obviously, Gutfeld is clueless about what it was like to get health insurance under the free market. Juan Williams, the lone liberal on the totally fair and balanced five-person panel, was also the only one to express concern for people not quite as lucky as they were.
"Previously, before Obamacare, we had a competitive marketplace," Williams pointed out. "And what did it do? It left so many people without insurance."
Not a single one of these “I got mine, why should I worry about you?” conservatives disagreed.
However, when cohost Eric Bolling suggested removing the mandate and offering cheaper insurance, cohost Dana Perino piped up with the suggestion of catastrophic insurance for younger people “and not have deductibles that are impossible for them to be able to use.”
Newsflash for Perino: catastrophic insurance by definition has high deductibles.
It just shows you how little these mouthpieces know what it’s like for the 99% to purchase health insurance and how little they care.
Watch this hideous display below, from the January 12, 2017 The Five.
And consider contacting your representative in Congress. You can look up him or her here or contact them via Democratic Coalition Against Trump. You can also contact Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell directly via webmail, by telephone at (202) 224-2541, by fax at (202) 224-2499 via Twitter and/or Facebook. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan doesn't appear to have webmail available for anyone not in his Wisconsin district. But you can call him at (202) 225-3031, fax him at (202) 225 3393, contact him via Twitter and/or Facebook.
The new meme for the Right is ‘Why do we have to replace it?" You’ll hear that one getting more amplified on Fox News over the next few weeks, until Tom Price presents everyone with the Health Savings Account solution.
What the reporter did not ask was who this woman voted for.
While I feel for the woman’s situation, I can’t help but think that her neighbors (if not she herself) are responsible by continuing to vote these heartless MFing Republicons into office.
And what’s worse: I honestly believe that if Republicon politicians were put under some sort of charm or spell to tell the absolute truth in every situation or risk bursting into flames, at least 70% of present Republicon voters would STILL vote for GOPers who told constituents the absolute unvarnished truth about how they’re going to screw over the voters.
“And the union workhouses-are they still in operation?”
Well we always knew that the Faux crew had it in them. Or they don’t have it in them if we are to believe Charles Dickens.
In a week we will find out whether or not Trump has a soul. God help us if he doesn’t.
If the Pence White House follows the proper procedures, as they apparently intend to do, there isn’t a way to block them. The Dems actually did this to themselves in changing the number of votes required in the Senate from over 60 to a simple majority.
Look at what Congress is preparing to send to Trump – something I understood they would have ready for his signature on the 20th and they’ve already cleared it through the Senate. It’s not a replacement plan at all. It’s a budget reconciliation approach identical to last year, designed to make sure that they didn’t need a single Dem vote to get it through the Senate.
The intention is simply to get rid of the ACA, as Rush Limbaugh has now repeatedly demanded they do. And we know that Trump and Pence enjoy and follow the repeated instructions from Limbaugh and Fox News shows like The Five.
When they say they intend to “replace” the ACA, we need to be clear what this actually means. It does NOT mean that they will simply swap in an identical plan and call it “TrumpCare”. They never wanted any such plan to exist and they have no plan like that to present anyway. Tom Price certainly has no plan of that manner, and he’s the one who will be implementing what the Pence White House is about to inflict.
What the GOP “replacement” DOES look like is the notion of a lot of Health Savings Accounts, along with people having the option to buy into high deductible catastrophic coverage plans. Meaning that if you don’t have employment or pension with benefits, you’re on your own. IGMFU indeed. That is what awaits the millions who had the temerity to sign up for the ACA when they knew the Right would never let it stand.
And we should keep in mind that none of this has anything to do with health care for the Right. It has to do with the fact that this was put forth by President Obama and was his major achievement of his two terms. For that reason alone, it must be destroyed immediately – they can’t call him a total failure until the ACA is in the trash can. And who cares if 20 million lower income Americans lose their coverage as a result?
If the Right cared about health care, they would have offered constructive solutions during the writing of the law, and they would have offered constructive amendments and fixes over the past 6 years. But they never did that – their approach during the drafting of the law was to try to send it back to committee so they could slow-roll it until the 2010 midterms. When they failed that scuttle approach, they spent the next several years not proposing fixes and adjustments but instead repeatedly saying “Let’s repeal it!” When they refused to allow any corrections and obstructed all efforts to do so, Obama began issuing executive orders to make some adjustments to how it was implemented, and of course the Right cried foul at that one too. This was never about anyone on the Right caring one bit about the people who need health care because of various pre-existing conditions but whom the insurance companies refuse to help.
The only thing the GOP agrees on about this situation is that they are going to quickly get rid of the ACA, and they will succeed in that effort. They will not have a replacement idea in hand, but what they will likely do is say that the Dems have to quickly confirm Tom Price for HHS so that he can get to work on it. When the Dems respond that the GOP could have waited to destroy the ACA until Price was in office, the Trump spin will be that it’s the Dems’ fault that we can’t replace the ACA and that the Dems are leaving everyone hanging.
