Just a fascinating read about a Republican town hall hosted last week by Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) that coincides exactly what I've been talking about here on The Fold.
One of the questions read aloud by Posey was: Why should taxpayers pay for your insurance when you clearly make enough money to pay for it on your own? Good question really.
Posey's answer was so typical of modern Republicanism that it has to sting when they hear it. He forthrightly exclaimed it was one of the perks of the job. A perk he thoroughly enjoys. It's a perk that is totally publicly funded by tax dollars. It's nearly the same exact system he wants to deny to people who are not Members of Congress. The Florida paper catches Posey in his hypocrisy.
"Keep in mind Posey received free health care premiums courtesy of taxpayers during his many years in the Florida Legislature. And that taxpayers pay up to 70 percent of Congress members' premiums."
Yes, and keep in mind too that the other 30% is still tax payer funded. The whole system is paid by tax dollars that are paid by people like you and me. It's such a great system that Posey calls it a "perk." It's a perk he doesn't think anyone else should have. He voted against the stimulus bill. He voted against SCHIP and now he claims he's against a public option that would allow people to buy into the very program he has raised his entire family on. It's socialist elitism.
Even with the public option that is in the House bill currently, those who can afford to pay the other 30% such as Posey, would have to. There is very little difference between Posey's plan he calls a "perk" and allowing the public to buy into a plan he enjoys. Only those who don't make enough would be exempt from premiums. The ratio would still be 70-30. Yet Republicans are so against extending the same plan to non-Members of Congress they are going around the country saying the president wants to setup death panels, is foreign-born and a socialist-- a disgusting way to demonstrate they really don't want people to have health insurance. If Obama is a socialist for wanting to extend benefits that Members currently enjoy, what are the people who raise their families off the very same system but refuse it to everyone else? They're socialist elites. They're certainly not conservative or small government crusaders.
