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Rob Woodall Won't Give Up Government Health Care 'Because It's Free'
WASHINGTON -- Moments after preaching extreme self-reliance to one of his constituents, a Georgia Republican told a gathering in his district that he will continue to rely on government-subsidized health care "because it's free."
Freshman Congressman Rob Woodall (R-GA): “I love the tea party” Freshman Rep. Rob Woodall, who served as chief of staff to his predecessor, made national news earlier this week for comments he made, captured on video by Patch.com, to a retired constituent who told him her company does not provide retiree benefits.
"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?'"
The exchange continued. In video provided to HuffPost by another constituent, Woodall was asked why -- if he believes in such self reliance -- he doesn't forgo his government health care plan.
"I have a question about taking care of you. You have government subsidized health care, but you are not obligated to take that if you don't want to. Why aren't you going out on the free market in the state where you're a resident and buy your own health care? Be an example," said a constituent in the new video.
"Your question is," Woodall responded, "my government's willing to give me lots and lots of stuff for free and why don't I take it?"
The woman followed up. "Why aren't you leading by example, and go and get it in a single-subscriber plan, like you want everybody else to have, because you want to end employer-sponsored health plans and government-sponsored health plans. You said so in a letter to me, that your goal is to get rid of the employer-sponsored health care [system]. So why aren't you leading by example and go out yourself, decline the government health plan and go to Blue Cross/Blue Shield or whoever, and get one for yourself and see how tough it is," she said. "You don't have any pre-existing conditions, I guess, you haven't had any life-threatening illnesses like I had last year."
Woodall responded that "this is why it's good to have these conversations, because there's some bad information out there."
But his constituent presses him further. "Answer the question: Why haven't you gone out and got it?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I did. It's because it's free. It's because it's free," he said. "The same reason I went out to Walgreen's and bought ActivOn and I don't have any arthritis pain: Because it's free. Folks, if you give people things for free, don't blame them for taking them."
On Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) responded to the initial Woodall video by telling the Washington Post that the congressman "lays bare" the GOP approach to health care. "No matter how hard you've worked your whole life, no matter how severe your medical hardship, the Republican motto is clear: You're on your own. This lays bare the ideology behind their goal of ending of Medicare as we know it," he said.
Democrats are seizing on Woodall's comments. The Democratic National Committee made sure that national reporters were aware of his remarks on Tuesday.
WATCH:
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Show AllSome psychologists have a theory that many of the world's ills can be blamed on psychopaths in high places.
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/21/136462824/a-psychopath-walks-into-a-room-can-you-tell
Any psychologist who *doesn't* understand that should be struck off. It's hardly rocket science.
It's true that the diagnostics manual doesn't make this clear, and it's rarely taught in grad school (or at least wasn't taught when I was there), but anyone who doesn't work by rote has to have the penny drop before long.
An individual should be diagnosed with psychopathy (currently "Anti-social Personality Disorder") if they routinely ignore the legitimate rights and needs of other people in favor of their own desires.
It doesn't require that they do anything totally outrageous. Just ignoring other people's rights is diagnostic of the condition. The brutal cop, the judge who takes bribes, the executive who puts people out of work for another penny in the dollar, the politician who takes care of his class at our expense, the priest who molests kids, the practitioner who charges for needless work ...they're all diagnosable.
Which means that there are very few people in power anywhere in the world whose behavior does not qualify them for a diagnosis and sequestration. But they're rich, so they escape. And we suffer.
He's right, as long as it's 'free' why shouldn't he take it? But somehow, that benefit doesn't seem to be OK for everyone else. These guys should start the fight to end subsidized medical care with the one they actually control, their own. I think their constituents would applaud. I know I would. And then there are those basically automatic raises they give themselves every year. Time to call them on that and put a stop to it. Let's balance the budget, not on the backs of the weak or the workers, but on the strong, the wealthy, who can actually afford it, and who also benefit the most.
He's not right, he's a freakin' hypocrite who needs to be shouted down and pelted with tomatoes along with his sleazy cronies in the GOP. His credo is "I've got mine, you folks are on your own....Seeya, suckers!" The truly remarkable thing about this astonishing little video is that the 'when am I gonna take care of myself' line got a bunch of applause! I did not get a look at the average age of the clueless clappers, but whatever their age, they are deluded indeed if they think they can afford to take care of themselves by buying private health insurance...
He is another example of our sociopathocracy, where soulless sociopaths reign and suckers take the blame.
It's not free you effing dickwad!! WE PAY FOR IT! So much for self reliance. It's self reliance for everyone but you! The repuglicanist mantra -- I have mine (which was yours only moments ago), so you can all (and they do mean all) go f*ck yourselves.
Why do so many follow this dickwad's philosophy and vote against themselves??
hi chuck, lol have you heard of the AMERICAN idiot. If Fox told some of these people that setting yourself on fire would teach a lesson to Obama...... 30 million people would have 3rd degree burns, stupid is as stupid does, i guess
Woodall sez: "Folks, if you give people things for free, don't blame them for taking them."
***
Such as, for example, a ticket into CONgress.
U.S. legislators may not represent the country's citizens, but they certainly reflect them.
How many different ways can the Tea Party Republicans say FUCK YOU! Let me count the ways......
It's NOT Free!
I'm paying for it, by the force of threatened incarceration if I stop paying my taxes that support your elitist lifestyle you POS!
Does anyone care?!!
I quote a poster from weeks past, as it is pointedly relevant here:
Somehow, someway, the government needs to remember that they are put in power to represent us, not rule us, for we are free men and women of the United States of America, the greatest nation in the world. Yet one must also realize the times we live in now and if one were to revolt they would be incorrectly labeled a terrorist instead of a patriot.
Sorry Tucson Don, but we are not free people anymore. Not with the Patriot Act, the recent assault on the 4th amendment and the 1st with anyone protesting getting locked up. Not with the TSA at proms and elsewhere. We are not brave either since so many have no problem giving up their freedoms.
I can't understand people willing to give up freedoms for NOTHING. Most don't have to be afraid of terrorists or Communists, or welfare loafers. They can't wait to surrender all rights and liberties in return for having somebody tell them what to do.
You're correct about our representatives' responsibility. Unfortunately this joker along with most of his fellow Republicans believes that he owes allegiance primarily to the "one percenters", the relatively tiny fraction of the U.S. population who control most of the country's wealth and income. That's why town meetings like the one shown here and even more elections like the one recently concluded in New York's 26th district are so important. Liberal Democrats need to reforge our traditional ties with labor unions and other middle class organizations to remind these bastards that we outnumber them.
Well said Tucson Don. I'm SO sick of hearing about how social security, medicaid, and medicare are "free," or "entitlements," or "welfare." I HAVE PAID INTO THOSE PROGRAMS OUT OF EVERY PAYCHECK FOR THE LAST 26 YEARS. How in the hell are they "free??"
Another example of the FUCKS - in both parties - framing the debate and the definitions and not even trying to correct such falsehoods because that is exactly what they want: people to think of these social programs as "free welfare." Makes it easier to kill the programs and fool the people, who aren't taught critical thinking skills anymore anyway.
That woman was wonderful. She really exposed him for the hypocrite he is. You could tell by the look in his beady little eyes that he knew it too.
But I doubt he is losing any sleep over it.
Healthcare isn't free. Taxes paid by my children and myself provide this benefit to Freshman Rep. Rob Woodall. This too shall pass unless these thieves shape up very quickly.
This is the usual Republican economic & political acumen at work in this grotesque Bush-clone. "Government" and "taxes" are bad -- except of course when they keep giving him goodies.
The hypocricy of this man is astounding. Good for the questioner for not letting it go. BTW the implication that when one recieves health care for "free" (which single payer definitely is not, as others have rightly pointed out) they will then go out and order prescriptions for ailments they don't have is ludicrous!
First, prescription drugs are not covered in a single payer system (I'm Canadian, I have some experience with this. If one is lucky one gets a drug plan with employer-sponsored insurance). Second, what competent doctor would write a script for a drug their patient didn't need? If his suggestion is that all/many/most/some doctors are corrupt then that's another issue entirely. Finally, most people just don't do this sort of thing. Most do not abuse their entitlements because they PAY fo them! Yes, even the dreaded poor pay taxes (imagine that!).This is the whole "welfare queen" myth spun in a new way and it's disgusting.
There are a ton of docs medicating people for things they don't need. Antibiotics for someone who doesn't have an infection to all the anti depressents written for the new made up diseases. ADHD? Never heard of that 5 yrs ago. Not to mention all the vaccines that do more harm then good. People who got the swine flu vac and the flu vac still got sick.
Natural news.com
Someone's been listening to scientology front groups too long. The overuse of antibiotics is primarily happening in the industrial farming sector where animals are fed antibiotics with the feed to prevent infection in filthy overcrowded living conditions, accounting for over 70 percent of antibiotic use in the US. This is what is largely responsible for antibiotic-resistant strains. Antidepressants are prescribed for depression, not ADHD, and yes, depression is a real illness with serious consequences, as has been proved by scientific advances in brain scanning technologies.
Hypocrisy indeed. As George Bernard Shaw once accurately noted:
"Self sacrifice allows us to sacrifice other people without blushing."
It's wonderful that an ordinary (to my mind extraordinary) citizen did something no reporter who wants to remain employed does anymore, ask a FOLLOW UP question! Such as "You didn't actually answer my question. Will you answer it?".
Kakistocrat, loved your comment. Some of these comments on CD make my day!
I do like that hypocritical prayerful pose by Woodall. He reeks with insincerity. Wonder how fast it took him to make it to K St after being elected? Does he realize, grammatically speaking, that his question was addressed to himself?
Kathy
While I fully agree with the woman challenging this extremist, Ayn Rand-Cult congressman, to be clear, the federal government employees health care plans are not free, the employee pays a big share of it too (I pay about $370 a month) along with ever increasing deductibles and copays.
As far as "we are paying for his insurance from out taxes", this is true for any employer-provided health care plan for a organization or firm providing a vital service - for example the health care plans for employees at my local supermarket, food distributor, grain elevator, seed company, etc. comes from my food purchases.
Of course, this could all be fixed by doing away with employer-provided health care entirely and replacing it with universal cradle to grave healthcare for all. Personally, I'd perfer a British NHS-type system myself. We have reached a point that it will be very difficult for single-payer by itself to reign in the provider-side of the problem.
My mom had a $4500 procedure. The insurance company's discount was $4000 so they paid $25 while my mom paid only 10%, which was $475. What's the provider-side problem again?
It's a false system, rotten to the core.
Yeah; I just got a treadmill EKG stress test. The hospital submitted a $2100 charge for this simple test - that took, perhaps, 30 min of a technician's time and 15 minutes of a cardiologist MD's time, and a well-worn, long-depreciated, ordinary PC-controlled treadmill and EKG machine. Federal Employees BC-BS, the insurance company, lowered this to an allowable charge of $59, which I must pay, becasue my deductible has not been met.
But if I had been poor or unemployed and uninsured, the hospital would have hounded me to the farthest corners of the earth - for the total $2100 charge!
It is more than insane; it is evil. I hope plenty of Canadians, Europeans, Australians and British are reading this.
So employers don't have to provide health care, no retirement, no regulation in the work place for safety, no regulation for safe products sold to consumers, no taxes and off shore more jobs to third world work force. Hey, looks like they are getting their investment paid off buying these stooges.
It's simple...tax the hell out of the poor so the rich can receive their "entitlements"...
Why do we continue to expect politicians to be rational?
I bet his answer makes "sense" to the guy. He cannot connect the dots, isnʻt that clear? Reps are all like that, what they say makes no sense to a more or less reasonable person, but they are not rational. They have only a few words in their heads: small government, anti women, anti abortion, anti gays.
The corporations who rule us are smart, but that does not mean they are rational. The guy from Conoco said taking away subsidies for oil companies is "unAmerican" when the five biggest oil companies made super humongous profit the first 3 months of this year.
None of that has anything to do with reason, or truth. They donʻt think, they cannot think.
How does one fight unreason?
The people, in their infinite wisdom, voted into office this shill as their representative.
The other guy lost because he made clear thoughtful arguments.
Remember, this is the South where you can't fix stupid.
Once again, what this Congressman is saying makes perfect sense to an adherent of Ayn Rand. And, they will argue, like the name of the magazine that promotes this nonsense, that what this congressman is arguing is the epitome of "Reason" (which that alway capitalize as I did).
The unfortunate fact is that Congressmen and Senators get free Health Insurance paid for by you and me. However, Federal Employees pay a percentage of their salaries and the Government kicks in a share and we have health insurance and for the general federal workforce it is far from free.
The GOP does not want any health care for the citizens of the United States. They are the root cause and blockers of anything called health insurance and have pulled this stunt for many years. What is really bad is that they blame the Democrats.
I must disagree with your last paragraph. The GOP and the Dems do, in fact, want health care for American citizens - but they want it to be paid by us to health insurance companies at ever-increasing rates (set, of course, by those same insurance companies, as they choose), increasing corporate profits at our expense. Because corporate profit, after all, is the mantra of the Corporate States of America. This is why single-payer or Medicare-for-All was never even added to any legislation, even when the Dems controlled the White House and both houses of Congress.
The ruling elite, like this buffoonish member of congress, are living in a bubble. They have a pathological sense of entitlement--they are special and deserve perks that the serfs shouldn't have.
Clearly, this "let them eat cake" mentality shows how Amerika is past due for a revolution.
"because it's free"
a politician who speaks the truth.
Not only is he greedy and a hypocrite; he's also dumb! You can practically see him trying to find two neurons to rub together to get a thought. How did anyone vote for a guy this stupid? I mean, if I had a dog this stupid, I'd have to put it to sleep for fear that it might drown in the toilet. This guy's a crawling turd who couldn't make it in the world five minutes without our assistance.
"How did anyone vote for a guy this stupid?"
He is from the South.
"You can't fix stupid."
Yep, it's like Judge Judy says, "Beauty fades. Stupid is forever."
You f*cking dirtbag Woodall, it ain't free, you piece of shit, the taxpayers that you spend your time screwing are paying the bill for your medical expenses.
Congress is filled with hypocrites, criminals, and just plain human trash.
My father preached right-wing crap all his life. He thought Franklin Roosevelt was a card-carrying communist and social security was the work of the Kremlin. He wanted to get rid of the government decades ago, except to fight wars, none of which he, conveniently, ever had to fight in. But he didn't hesitate to take a government job when he needed one and lived in retirement on a government pension and social security. They're all the same.
And in the end what will result?
Nothing.
Just the letting off of a little steam.
But just a bit further, a result could be that the nice lady dies of some complications which might have been averted some time previous had she had a comprehensive medical plan like Medicare, to say nothing of the gold plated "free" plan (taxpayer funded) that congressfolk get.
I love hypocrites.
That's a JOKE.
FREE AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY
Direct Democracy would be like giving children free access to the candy store.
It is bad enough that the idiot voters elect people like the one in this video. Do you really think that the voters would be any better voting on issues which concern themselves?
Sheesh.
Not so. Where DD exists -and it has been in place in many municipalities and several states for 100 years or so- public initiatives are usually treated over-cautiously if anything. There's no case that could be described metaphorically as "free access to the candy store".
Well, they say you have to be crazy to get into politics, so why should we expect sanity from the ones who get there?
These are the same people who claim a government job isn't a "real" job--unless of course it is theirs. So make them work for free with no benefits just like they want for everyone else.
This cretin sort of reminds me of Dubya. He's got that same 'eyebrows raised, creased brow, stupid smile' look while he's trying to figure how to lie his way out of the predicament he's created by spewing horse crap in the first place.
So much for the best and the brightest. Time for a recall vote in GA!!
That woman was just great! And while also surrounded by a number of his tea party pals. I can't decide if these people are psychopaths or sociopaths, the later of which lack any form of social conscience. They also lie very easily, and without even a teeny pang, like the psychopath version. Certainly they are deeply disturbed people, whichever label fits best.
What I observe is a certain form of denial - he is using a free system while telling a woman who doesn't have one - that she should not use a free system, but "pick herself up by her bootstraps" when he refuses to do this, and by signing off on his government plan. He also does not recognize the reality that, when people get sick, they CANNOT take care of themselves. That is the nature of a health problem. Other people must help you.
I am guessing he was not sick in a way that required him to depend on others for help.
I am also hearing in the tenor, pitch, and rhythmns of his speech, a kind of church style of speaking. Which is weird to me. He's bringing something into his work on Congressional issues from a church he goes to - rather than any real education or life experience on this issue, or demonstrated ability to think about those issues in relevant and creative ways.
Psychologically, these people are really out of touch. I can't think of much else to do with or to to them, other than what this fine woman did, in standing up and confronting him so intelligently. .. One could then see his beedy little eyes darting out aand about, like a rat trying to figure out how he could escape his trap ..
How disgusting that these people are in power. My heart went out to the constituent he was talking down to. What a shit head speaking that way to a retired woman with no health coverage through her employer.
They need to open an improved Medicare to the entire country. People like that lady can get on board the train first.
Jackm,
If he was a psychopath he would be unable to maintain his job. Sociopaths can be highly functional, and usually do a better job of at least feigning having a conscience. This fellow needs to go to finishing school for sociopaths if he wants to really excel in politics. He might look for a post with the American Enterprise Institute or some similar "think tank" when his tenure ends.
I agree with the gist of your comments about his form of denial, although his healthcare coverage is not free, I believe he misspoke on that point. He has to pay for it. The problem is, many employers do not offer coverage for their employees, who cannot afford to buy their own coverage. And the woman's insinuation was right on target, since we know this nitwit is against "govt. financed" healthcare, while himself being the recipient of a taxpayer subsidized plan. So, to be not a hypocrite he should relinquish his govt. plan and buy his own plan on the market, although the fundamental idiocy and lack of compassion of his position really would not change then, because the central problem, which Republicans and many others are in denial about, is that the market has no solutions to the problem of lack of healthcare access for millions of Americans. Scores of millions simply can't afford private insurance and there is no indication that is going to change anytime soon based on the fluctuations of the market.
We do need Medicare to be expanded to all. That _should_ have been Obama's fight, but he and the DLC are too sold out for that. It is promising that Vermont has just passed a single payer plan, which will hopefully be the beginning of a wave of states following suit.