Back during the healthcare debate, certain Republicans claimed we didn’t need reform because when the existing healthcare system failed, private charity organizations would magically step in to fill the void.
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) told an uninsured woman with growing tumors that she should seek “existing government programs” or find charity [1].
CHURCHILL: I have a very close relative, a woman in her early forties, who did have a wonderful, high-paying job, owns her own home and is a real contributing member of society. She lost her job. Just a couple of weeks ago, she found out that she has tumors in her belly and that she needs an operation. Her doctors told her that they are growing and that she needs to get this operation quickly. She has no insurance. [...]
CANTOR: First of all I guess I would ask what the situation is in terms of income eligibility and the existing programs that are out there. Because if we look at the uninsured that are out there right now, there is probably 23, 24% of the uninsured that is already eligible for an existing government program[...] Beyond that, I know that there are programs, there are charitable organizations, there are hospitals here who do provide charity care if there’s an instance of indigency and the individual is not eligible for existing programs that there can be some cooperative effort. No one in this country, given who we are, should be sitting without an option to be addressed.
Frum Forum’s Andrew Pavelyev [2] also advocated the private charity approach, though he acknowledged the “let them beg” model of handling sick people might lose the GOP some support.
This was how the right put a pleasant face on the movement to abandon sick people. Yes, Cantor was just regurgitating the same “public, bad, private, good!” mantra dribbling from the Republicans since Reagan, but by tacking on “charity” to the end of his abandonment plan, Cantor was able to shield himself in a cloak of altruism…if only for a little while…at least until people noticed his plan was ultimately, “Hope a nice person takes pity upon you, and can heal tumors. Thanks for the tax money!”
(Similarly, Ross Douthat is now desperately trying to convince people that he’s the “new friendly” brand of Conservative.” In reality, he’s yet another straight, white male, who is terrified of granting gay people equal rights. See, society can handle Newt Gingrich’s endless string of mistakes marriages, but the second two dudes or two ladies get hitched, anarchy will erupt in the streets.)
The compassionate Conservative charade is pretty transparant, but every once in a while, a filterless right-winger lays out the party philosophy in terms so stark they make the bat signal look like subtle nuance [3].
Limbaugh says non-profit organization employees are “lazy idiots” and “rapists in terms of finance and economy”
Right. See, because the people who need help are lazy leaches, and the non-profit people are no better. The only admirable solution is private markets where everything is run in a for-profit model. Unless you can pay in America, you deserve to die.
With such open contempt against poor people (and the people trying to help them) resonating from the GOP, it’s clear the right’s plan to “help” the dispossessed is to further marginalize them. What else could explain their psychotic quest to defund ACORN, the organization that helped low- and moderate-income families find homes, and registered people to vote? Clearly, the GOP’s primary concern wasn’t thwarting corruption. ACORN was cleared of any criminal conduct charges [4], though the organization was defunded anyway, a move Federal Judge Nina Gershon [5] deemed unconstitutional. And besides, if the right is suddenly concerned with corruption, why didn’t they ever express the same level of interest in Halliburton or Blackwater’s illegal practices?
A hefty distate for the poor and black people inspired the crusade against ACORN simply because the poor and black overwhelmingly vote Democrat ,which is why ACORN was a GOP target for many years.
Sadly, now is the time when a group like ACORN is so badly needed. Millions of people have lost their homes, and HAMP has been an utter failure. Recently, dozens of people were injured when 30,000 people [6] rushed the Tri-Cities Plaza Shopping Center in East Point, Georgia in a desperate attempt to apply — that’s just to apply — for government housing assistance. Meanwhile, geniuses like Larry Summers claim “Everyone agrees that the recession is over.” I guess it is over…for the right people. Everyone else: the poor, jobless, and homeless, will be relying on care from lazy, economy-raping idiots.
Now sure would be a great time for a non-profit community-based organization to step up and fill the void left by the government. Oh, that’s right. ACORN no longer exists. Well, at least we all got to watch James O’Keefe play dress-up.
And besides, even if ACORN was still around, we couldn’t trust them because they’re “lazy idiots,” who rape the economy, says the zoftig millionaire organ bag who parks himself in front of a microphone for four hours daily when he alternates between shouting his thoughts and sweating. Yes, the people who work for free are rapists and pillagers, but the Wall Street fat cats who wrecked the economy, and then raided the Treasury are Good Samaritans.
That’s the mindset of the GOP. Rush is just the loud idiot who functions without a filter, but at least he’s honest. The right has no plan to help the poor majority. Or rather, their plan is to marginalize and ignore the suffering masses.
I don’t think they plan on eating them just yet. Though, the GOP may open up to the idea if a young, go-getting entrepreneur shapes a compelling enough business model for how Homeless Pies could reduce the deficit.
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