These people are morally bankrupt
I’m loving the honesty coming from the GOP today. First Eric Cantor telling folks in Joplin, Missouri (Joplinians? Joplinonians? Scotts?) to, essentially “suck it up,” — no disaster relief for you unless it’s paid for first! — and here is Freshman Georgia Rep. Woodall telling old people to suck it up just as hard but in a different way:
Rep. Rob Woodall, a Georgia Republican, made a vigorous ideological defense of ending Medicare as it currently exists, telling seniors at a local town hall that they ought not look to the government to provide health care for the elderly just because their private employer doesn’t offer health benefits for retirees.
A Woodall constituent raised a practical obstacle to obtaining coverage in the private market within the confines of an employer-based health insurance system: What happens when you retire?
“The private corporation that I retired from does not give medical benefits to retirees,” the woman told the congressman in video captured a local Patch reporter in Dacula, Ga.
“Hear yourself, ma’am. Hear yourself,” Woodall told the woman. “You want the government to take care of you, because your employer decided not to take care of you. My question is, ‘When do I decide I’m going to take care of me?’”1
Karoli nails it:
Because it’s just so easy, don’t you know? Think about what this guy is really saying. He’s saying that senior citizens should either go bankrupt or without health care unless they’re lucky enough to have the money to pay for it. He’s assuming everyone would somehow manage to have the means to get necessary care and Medicare is just a crutch!
And she has more at Crooks and Liars.
1 I refuse to direct traffic to HuffnPuff, but I can’t find a source story anywhere, so I leave it to you to seek it out. Just read the C&L post. Nails it!
[via Crooks and Liars]
[cross-posted over at that other place]
redshirt
Despite the pure evil, I must admit, I find the near honesty to be refreshing.
Someone at Evil HQ is gonna have to give him a refresher on how to lie to the public.
ABL
WHAR BE THE VIDEO?
FYWP.
Brian R.
Hear yourself first, jackass.
Brian R.
@ABL:
I just assumed the useless white space was an homage to Rep. Woodall (R-Fuck You, I Got Mine)
dr. bloor
He beat his opponent 65-35 in his election to Congress. Do you imagine for a second he’ll pay the price for his greedheadedness?
ABL
THAR be the video! My bad.
FYABL
cathyx
And those idiots will still vote for him against their best interest.
ABL
@Brian R.: hahaha. nice parenthetical!
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Let them keep it up. Maybe we’ll finally be able to convince everyone on both sides what happens when you don’t vote for Democrats.
Warren Terra
It somehow escaped this fine fellow’s attention that the government spent more than thirty years promising her that the costs of her healthcare in retirement would be born in retirement, and taxing her to pay for the retirement of retirees and to build a fund to pay for her own Medicare?
I remember hearing about the race to the South Pole. Scott et al failed because they had made poor choices about equipment – most importantly, they used unreliable mechanized transport and horses who had to carry vast quantities of their own food. By contrast, Amundsen succeeded because he traveled with sled dogs, which offered him two great advantages: they were nearly adapted to the climate, and instead of carrying vast amounts of food for them he could, as he got farther from his supply depot, feed some of the dogs by slaughtering others. I get the sense that the elderly voters on whom the Republicans rely for their motive power are being strapped into harness, ready to propel the Republican machine, in preparation for what their masters have told them will be a brave and noble voyage, having no idea what their masters’ actual plans for them entail.
cathyx
Remember that lady who told Bush that she had to work 3 jobs to make ends meet, and he told her congratulations, that’s the American work ethic at play.
Woodall just needs to tell those people who complain that it’s the American way to suffer in silence.
Spaghetti Lee
@cathyx:
His district is one of the richest in America. His constituents are already voting in their best interest.
Violet
Does this guy have any relatives who are using Medicare? Could someone perhaps find them and interview them? Maybe suggest their relative, the Congressman, doesn’t want them to have their Medicare.
Cacti
Nothing like getting a lecture on bootstrap self-sufficiency from someone who collects a $174,000 public salary.
cathyx
@Spaghetti Lee: Well in that case, that lady just needs to move to a different district. She doesn’t really fit in in this one, if you know what I mean.
gbear
Wow, he got a standing ovation from his audience for that line.
AliceBlue
I live in Georgia but not in this butthole’s district (I live in another Republican butthole’s district–Lynn “I can’t remember the Ten Commandments” Westmoreland. If I had been at that town hall, I would’ve ended up being arrested. People cheered! Jesus Christ, there’s no way I could control my temper. But yeah, he’s in a solid red district in a solid red state.
Cacti
The proper retort to Congressman Glib should have been…
“I paid my payroll taxes for 40 years jackass, I did take care of me.”
TaMara (BHF)
Your modern Regressives® at work. I say if we want to cut government health care costs, let’s start with the Regressives® who feel the government should not be paying for seniors’ healthcare.
PurpleGirl
@Cacti: And who will get lifetime health care along with a pension in return for his congressional service, whatever length it is.
From C&L
It’s worth noting that Rep. Woodall enjoys a robust health insurance program as the result of his career employment as a Congressional staffer, and now a Congressman. He would be one of the fortunate few to have post-retirement health insurance at taxpayers’ expense. Oh, right. That’s “earned by the sweat of his brow.” Yeah, right.
cathyx
I think this topic calls for what Digby had to say about it:
I have an idea. Let’s have the morally superior super-wealthy take the lead on this. We raise their taxes and close all their loopholes first. Then the rest of us will pony up once we see how much that raises. Their fine example will surely inspire the rest of us to give up our selfish, greedy ways.
Fred
Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Mordor)
Nutella
@Cacti:
I am sick of hearing these scum talk about SS and Medicare as if it’s a gift from the government to a bunch of lazy leeches. We’ve all been paying 15.3% of our salaries as insurance premiums for years and now when it’s time for the payout of the SS and Medicare insurance we paid for, they want to shut down the insurance program and keep all our premiums.
(Note: It looks like 7.65% on your paystub but half of the 15.3% FICA payment comes out of your paycheck, the other half is paid by your employer as a payroll tax.)
Mnemosyne
@gbear:
And I guarantee you that at least half of those applauders are on Medicare. Crabs in a bucket.
Warren Terra
@Nutella:
Technically, it’s 14.2% (15.3/107.65 – because the employer eats half the payroll tax, while your payroll taxes are twice what you see listed your actual base pay is 7.65% higher than is listed). But your basic point stands.
Hawes
I can remember growing up in Georgia (I got better). The Democrats were typical Conservadems, but even a guy like Zell Miller could be a fiery populist. Miller went and create the Hope Scholarships that gave a ton of people college educations who wouldn’t have otherwise had access to them.
Now, Miller is co-Chair of Newt Gingrich’s presidential
implosioncampaign.What the hell happened to the Southern populist streak? Race can’t explain ALL of it.
Chris
@Hawes:
Well, it helps that the South’s doing a lot better now than it was in Huey Long’s days. More people can afford to indulge in Gooper politics now than they could eighty years ago.
Surly Duff
@Cacti:
And gets free health care for life.
Mike G
@Chris:
Thanks to being subsidized for decade after decade by the rest of the country adnd the federal government, which they will never forgive us for, let alone acknowledge. And the South did not become acceptable for major corporate investment and migration until they were dragged kicking and screaming out of southern-fried apartheid.
Shinobi
Best bumper sticker, ever.
steve
What really disturbed me the most about this video wasn’t Woodall’s “take care of me” line. It was the audience standing up and clapping and cheering when he said it.
I am weary of Republicans who throw around the term “entitlements.” They are fully aware of its pejorative connotations. They’re simply trying to reinforce the perception that things like Medicare and Social Security are handouts to the lazy and shiftless.
El Cid
Woodall was just a bit too much of a Southern gentleman to say what he should have said to this lady:
“Oh, poor baby: FUCK YOU — I don’t give a shit what’s gonna happen to you. And I’m pretty damn sure all these people ain’t wanting to pay a bunch of taxes because you’re going to have it tough in a few years. Take your fuckin’ poor-mouthin’ somewhere else, old lady.”
Corner Stone
@El Cid: Isn’t that exactly what he said?
I didn’t need my filter to hear it clear. “Hear yourself!”
aka fuck you. fuck you and die.
Dollared
Oh please God, oh please oh please, can they please draft Paul Ryan to run for Prez? Pretty please?
These guys really have gotten so much Koch up their nose they can’t believe that there still is a welfare state. They really think they’ve stopped it and these crazy old people have to beg them to get it back.
Corner Stone
You dumb old sack. You worked some place for 30 years, and they stole any thought of a pension from you.
Now you need things and you can’t afford them. Fuck you. Die you old goat sack.
Dollared
Wow. I just realized it. This guy thinks Medicare is already gone, and she has to beg for it to get it back. He thinks the coup has already happened.
Now we know that most of them really, really would default on the debt, and tank the whole world economy, just for those three point six points on the top marginal income tax rate. They would couch it in terms of “entitlements,” but they will try to blow the whole thing up.
Dollared
@Mnemosyne: Unbelievable. “Stupid” does not begin to describe the mind of Georgia Republican.
Joseph Nobles
We are using our government to take care of ourselves. That IS us taking responsibility for our own healthcare.
I mean, Gotdamn.
Dollared
@Joseph Nobles: This. But can you name one national journalist that would understand that?
The Tim Channel
If I were still living in the US, I’d be forming a contingency exit plan in the event that the Republicans somehow manage to steal back their power. There’s no way they could honestly win it back, but they may use their wealth to shape current events in a way (some people think 9-11 was a false flag op e.g.) that results in their return to power.
One bit of good news. At least a small minority of these crazy bastards are going to STILL be distracted from politics as they shine their resumes in anticipation of GOD’S real return date, now scheduled for Oct 21.
Enjoy.
The Tim Channel
On the other hand, perhaps the best place in the world to live in poverty would be the US? Better trash to sift through and plenty of fast food garbage to sustain oneself.
Enjoy.
HeartlandLiberal
@The Tim Channel: I have already been researching cost of living in Germany (think high, if you want to buy a house, very high). We lived there for a year back in the 70’s, I speak German pretty fluently, and my wife could get up to speed quickly again with enough to function.
Alternatively, we would look at Canada, but Canada has made it very, very hard you to move there. There is no longer a specific provision for permanent residence for retirement. Basically, they want you to show up with enough money to invest in or run a business.
Well, as a retiree, I would just as soon not, thanks very much, but I do have enough income to support myself. Apparently that is all the Germans demand, and you can pretty much be assured of a permanent resident visa.
honus
This lecture is coming from a 41 year old who has never head anything other than a government job. Congressional aide, and then Congressman. By his own lights, he has never produced anything.
JGabriel
@redshirt:
I think they’re losing some of that capability. Not the ability to lie, per se, but the ability to know when they should lie. When you think like Republicans, you think you’re making good points — you’re oblivious to the fact that you are convincing everyone else of your eviltude.
.
Chris
@Dollared:
Try “sociopathic.” “Stupid” people are just honestly unintelligent. People who seem to literally jerk off to the idea of watching people suffer are something else.
rickstersherpa
@Cacti: And who, according to the Huffington Post article has been grifting the political game all his life either as a flunkie, aide, or politician.
rickstersherpa
It seems like they are all the terrible people in Flannery O’Conner’s short stories come to life. It makes you understand why she made the psychopathic serial killer the hero of “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
maya
The better way of describing Woodall’s solution for seniors who have no way of going into the private HC market now that republicans have targeted Medicare as just another Koch tax cut should properly be: “Heal yourself, ma’am. Heal yourself.”
JR
Georgia. What a boil on the ass of America. (apologies to the good folks in GA, all 22 of them!)
My brother married twice in Atlanta, or just outside.
We were at this beautiful Methodist church, and this nice-looking sociopath leaned over and asked “How do you all up north keep the blacks out of your church?”
Hasn’t changed much, yet, has it? Makes me proud Not to go to church, anywhere.
Redleg
I thought we paid pay taxes to fund Medicare? That’s why I resent calling Medicare and Social Security “entitlements.” The term “entitlement” has taken a bad connotation. I prefer the term “obligation.”
Paul in KY
@Fred: You know, the sad thing is that the orcs & trolls & whatnot that Mordor employed did receive free healthcare.
Now it was maybe not the best (Gnarr, a cold ye sniveling pisspot. We’ll have to amputate. Meat in the stewpot tonight!), but they had it.
Paul in KY
@Hawes: Zell got rich.
Paul in KY
@The Tim Channel: I have one. I’m eligible for British & EU citizenship. I have filed my papers.
God save the Queen!
Larkspur
Aha! This is the basis upon which we make Rand Paul’s nightmare come true. I’m going to go to his office. I’m going to be armed. I’m going to force him at gunpoint to test my tired old eyes for glaucoma, at no charge, dude, and if for some reason he objects, I’m just going to say, “This is me deciding to take of me”.
Cain
@Cacti:
The proper retort is “Sir, I understand that you’re on a government insurance for your medical. After you retire, will you voluntary give up your insurance and take care of you? Because I could use the money I save paying for your healthcare to take care of me.”
cain
WereBear
For the sweet love of a benevolent god, that is so true I can’t get it out of my head.
Personally, I love the honesty of the current Republican trend. Go for it! Tell them exactly what you have planned! Do some freakin’ PowerPoint!
PWL
More and more I’m beginning to believe that the Republicans are the party of Louis XVI.
But instead of “Let them eat cake,” it’s “Let them eat shit.”
dww44
@honus: This.
dww44
@JGabriel:
Yep, so many of those elected to Congress last go round seem to be of the 40 somethings generation who were probably educated in private schools, most likely religiously affiliated. A growing problem here in Georgia is that all those who have been educated in private, mostly religious, schools since integration are coming into their own. Their outlook is very narrow, restrictive, and they have no real sense of history. They are dangerous. Hopefully they will continue to “out” their greed, selfishness, and down right meanness.
DFH no.6
You think, “Surely, surely, shit like this will finally open people’s eyes and they’ll realize that, as bad as elected Democrats can be (and man, can they be bad, no doubt) Republicans are far worse and shouldn’t be allowed to be in charge of jack because they’re such obvious sociopathic monsters”.
But after more than forty years closely watching American politics, I sadly conclude you’d be wrong.
Far too many of us actually like and approve of sociopathic monsters being in charge. It’s what many of our fellow countrymen want (as Sideshow Bob put it so well, “deep down you long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king!”).
Yeah, the overreach on Medicare will cause some damage in 2012, but really not much and nothing like the pasting Democrats took all across the nation (from state level offices to the Congress) in 2010. It’s a long game for the fascists, and they will never, ever stop.
Keep two salient things in mind:
One, with a perfect storm of imminent economic collapse combined with national fatigue over Bush & Co. in 2008, McCain and The Grifter still got 47% of the vote. That’s the minimum the fascists can count on right now in a Presidential election.
Second – as Mnemosyne wrote upstream – likely at least half of the people wildly cheering Woodall’s Randian “I Got Mine, Fuck You” statement are on Medicare themselves.
DFH no.6
The clever analogy by Warren Terra of the solidly Republican-voting seniors being like Amundsen’s sled dogs might be apt except for one important thing: those already retired and receiving Medicare and their SS payments won’t miss out on one dime (and thus will happily continue to largely vote Republican, cuz, you know, they got theirs).
The “sled dogs” are actually those 55 and under who will likely get fucked, not because we can’t afford it (we most certainly can), but because Republicans will find ways in our current economic and political order to at least seriously chip away at future Medicare and SS benefits, along with other aspects of the modern welfare state social compact in general (as their compatriots are doing, to a lesser degree, in western Europe).
That’s why the current Medicare overreach looks to many like a defeat for Republicans (and it will be, in small and temporary ways mostly, like Hochul’s win in NY) but will likely end up as a strategic victory for them (advancing that “chip away”). Someone – I don’t think on this thread – called the Medicare overreach something like “the biggest political blunder in a generation”. I wish it were so, but I’m afraid not.
Goddamn I hope I’m wrong.
Chet
@Dollared:
FTFY.
jerry
the standing ovation is what i fear the most. it shows just how stupid the average american is. woodall says fuck you america,i just shit in your front yard and now you will like it. the nerve of this ass wipe to take a heaping hand ful of american wealth for himself and his family and then tell the rest of us, the party is over. you know the 15% plus we pay and have been paying for years needs to be accounted for. and any politician who in any way voted in such a way as to misdirect the funds. need to have all their benefits stripped away and any wealth confiscated
and returned to the treasury. no matter if they are dead,retired, or still in office. these pukes need to be dealth with. and lets also deport them to the middle east
where they seem to want so much of our monies to go.