Rep. Zach Wamp: Health Care is a Privilege

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This is Rep. Zach Wamp (R), of Tennessee, speaking out against health care reform under the Obama administration. It's difficult to know where to start here: is it Wamp's insistence that health care "will be completey turned over to the government" (im-f*cking-possible, no U.S. politician is proposing this) or his belief that "gobs" of illegal immigrants are "getting our healthcare" (someone find me the data supporting this, especially when hospitals are happy to hold balances, interest-free, for years on end)? How about the "provisions" he's attributing to Obama, such as financing health care on revoked Medicare benefits and deductions to small businesses? When exactly did Barack Obama start crushing up a**hole pills into his black-forest berry iced tea?

But Wamp's most offensive and dated rhetoric is his belief that Health Care is a privilege, not a right. In the post-prescription lobby world, you damn well believe health care has become a right. Just the rising of cost of prescription meds (always ahead of inflation) has sent too many seniors back to work, to say nothing of those losing their houses or simply going "nekkid" (as Wamp put it) to stay financially afloat. Furthermore, if we learned nothing else from the Great Depression, it's that a government that provides "entitlements" (roads, schools, etc.) generally improves the state of the union.

Above all, what is a Democratic Republic that won't keep its citizenry from getting sick? Where participation equals representation we all have to be well, not bogged down by complicated tax incentives. Wamp knows that lower-middle class parents will mostly be too distracted by work/family/not losing their house to participate in his healthcare solutions. Funny thing, those families are generally more "diverse" than his wealthy political brethren.