Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Dr. Tom Takes the Heat on Health Care Advice

Oklahoma's junior senator, Dr. Tom Coburn, serves as a government official. He's a federal legislator, empowered to help make the government work better for his fellow Oklahomans.

Unfortunately for us, Coburn doesn't actually believe in government. To him, it seems to be some sort of giant conspiracy to rob Sooners of their money and their ambition.

Like Ronald Reagan before him, Coburn sees government as the problem, not the solution. It's an awkward position at best, since he was presumably elected by the people in order to do good in the world through government means.

So when an Oklahoma woman broke down in sobs at a Coburn town hall the other day, Coburn couldn't bring himself to support a real solution to her troubles, like, say, guaranteed health coverage for pre-existing conditions.

But no. Coburn turned the talk to neighborly support, as if the woman could take up a collection and pay for her husband's massive medical costs. Big if.

Not surprisingly, Coburn's getting hammered for his response. There's more here.

1 comment:

Man of the West said...

Oh, c'mon, gents, you could at least cast your "real solution" in its full light, as:

"...a real solution to her troubles, like, say, guaranteed health coverage for pre-existing conditions, at the expense of people who may or may not want to contribute, who may or may not have personal issues or troubles of their own which may require those resources, said expense to be extracted from their pockets via the police power of government, in utter, complete, and glorious violation of the Tenth Amendment."

Whether or not you want to see it happen, it would at least be helpful to include the full description. :)