Editor’s note: CL copy editor Emiene Wright contributed to this post.
On Sunday, Sen. Bob Rucho, a Republican from Mecklenburg County, penned a tweet that has since caused a firestorm of controversy (sic throughout):
“Justice Robert’s pen & Obamacare has done more damage to the USA then the swords of the Nazis,Soviets & terrorists combined.”
In other words, the Affordable Care Act will kill as many Americans as the most oppressive political regimes of the last 100 years.
For anyone shocked by Rucho’s tweet, remember that the sassy statesman hardly ever shies away from expressing his convictions. The history buff was a primary author of the bill that rejected expanding Medicaid, leaving hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians without healthcare. His tax-reform bill, which was ultimately rejected, would have added a state sales tax to food and prescription medicine. During a voters’ forum at Central Piedmont Community College in August, an audience member referenced the state legislature’s takeover of Charlotte’s airport, to which Rucho replied, “Apparently you might’ve been reading the newspaper too many times.”
Considering Rucho’s passion for history and oppressive public policy, the following is a list of classic dictators Rucho has reminded us of “too many times.”
Kim Jong-il
Despite a book Jong-il wrote touting his adoration for journalism, North Korea consistently ranks among countries with the weakest freedom of speech. And don’t Jong-il and Rucho kind of look alike!?
- Zennie Abraham (flickr Creative Commons)
Pol Pot
When it came to his countrymen, the Cambodian dictator shared Rucho’s IDGAF attitude. During his regime, Pot exiled city dwellers to the country to work in farms and labor camps. The forced labor and resulting malnutrition killed off about 25 percent of the country’s population. To be fair, rejecting Medicaid will only leave about 5 percent of North Carolina’s population without health care coverage. But, you know, what’s 500,000 people.
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko
Like Rucho, the president of Belarus is known for controversial statements. In 1995, Lukashenko made a remark that praised Hitler (“Not everything connected to that well-known Hitler was bad”). When an openly gay European Union leader called him Europe’s “last dictator,” Lukashenko responded that it was “better to be a dictator than gay.” Someone get this guy on Twitter.
Related Stories
Bob Rucho is a drama queen
This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2013.
I don’t understand what has happened to the former Grand Old Party. It’s like they have fallen into the grip of some collective mental illness. While politicians of all parties have been known for playing fast and loose with the truth, the GOP since the Clinton Administration have taken it to a whole new level.
The ACA provides a path to PRIVATE health insurance to 20 million people who were uninsured, but the right wing echo chamber is screaming about 5 million people who are being forced to upgrade the policies that in reality covered very little. No one is being told they can no longer have insurance, they are being told their non complying policy will be canceled and are being offered a policy that does meet the standards. The Republicans are insinuating that the ACA is causing 5 million people to become uninsured…and the blind followers are taking it hook line and sinker and screaming it from the hill tops.
To be fair, North Carolina GOP Chairman Claude Pope rebuked the tweet, calling it highly offensive. He even asked Rucho to apologize.
DLP you really should take some Kaopectate for that bullshit you keep spewing.
From the New York Times, the country’s most slavishly-pro-Obama newspaper:
“Thousands of New York City writers, opera singers, music teachers, photographers, doctors, lawyers and others are learning that their health insurance plans are being canceled and they may have to pay more to get comparable coverage, if they can find it.
They are part of an unusual, informal health insurance system that has developed in New York, in which independent practitioners were able to get lower insurance rates through group plans, typically set up by their professional associations or chambers of commerce. That allowed them to avoid the sky-high rates in New York’s individual insurance market, historically among the most expensive in the country.
But under the Affordable Care Act, they will be treated as individuals, responsible for their own insurance policies. For many of them, that is likely to mean they will no longer have access to a wide network of doctors and a range of plans tailored to their needs. And many of them are finding that if they want to keep their premiums from rising, they will have to accept higher deductible and co-pay costs or inferior coverage.”
Read that, idiot? INFERIOR COVERAGE.
“Jong-Il” is Kim’s first name, so calling him that would be like calling the US President “Barack”. The proper way to refer to him in print is “Kim”.
Garth:
Please explain the Republican plan to help millions of people who have been rejected by the for profit health insurance industry get coverage so they can avoid being bankrupted by the for profit health care industry.
Like I said: Hook line & sinker and screaming it from the hill tops.
Great post. I’d like to add that he reminds me of Margaret Thatcher — all ideology, all the time — with zero empathy for those whose lives are wrecked by that same ideology.
DLP,
Perhaps you should read – if English comprehension is within your capabilities – the second paragraph of the NYTimes article I quoted. Here is the key phrase again:
“lower insurance rates through group plans, typically set up by their professional associations or chambers of commerce”
All of that took place in the “for profit health care industry”.
Garth:
Here’s a reading comp exercise for you:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr3200ih/pdf/BILLS-111hr3200ih.pdf
It is the bill that the president proposed and that was passed by the house. It is the bill he was talking about when he said “you can keep your current insurance”.
The current law is the bill that was passed by the senate. GOP intransigence is the reason you got this one instead of HR3200.
The current law, flawed though it is, is better that the Republican plan which is to do nothing.
Garth:
A quote from the cut and paste you don’t think I read:
“They are part of an unusual, informal health insurance system…”
You are justifying denying insurance for millions because it will interfere with a small UNUSUAL system. You’re all heart.
HR3200 didn’t pass the House, you fucking moron.
From Wikipedia:
The proposed America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (or HR 3200)[1] was an unsuccessful bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 14, 2009. The bill was introduced during the first session of the 111th Congress as part of an effort of the Democratic Party leadership to enact health care reform. The bill was not approved by the House.