By Otto
In a recent letter to the editor, of The
Wichita Eagle, "Punitive view," JOSEPH KUTTLER challenged a
letter to The Wichita Eagle, Oct. 1, “Wrong solution,” by the Americans for Prosperity.
The Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is nothing more than one of the Koch
brothers (David and Charles) front groups. It is a fake "think tank"
of people hired to create the impression that the Koch brothers are more than
just the two people. They want it to look like a grass roots organization.
Kutter's letter is about expanding Medicaid and how the AFP
opposes that as the "Wrong solution." Kutter, as many serious Kansans,
favors expanding Medicaid.
What the AFP said was:
"The only ones engaging in “ideological obstinance
and bullying” are those who claim that expanding Medicaid under the Affordable
Care Act is needed to save Kansas
Reams of evidence show Medicaid is both fiscally
unsustainable and harmful to patients. Instead of an expansion of Medicaid, we
need a system that is affordable for taxpayers and provides high-quality health
care to those who’ve fallen on tough times."
What they really mean is 'Let's go back to doing nothing and
just let the poor die.' The AFP letter actually said that "Medicaid is harmful
to patients." If such statements weren't so mean-spirited it would be
laughable.
There have been at least two letters in rebuttal, including
Kutter's, to the AFP. There needs to be more. The Koch brothers are pushing
their far right-wing ideology through their fake citizens groups, such as A of
P. On the surface of it all it is really quite simple. The Kochs follow a 'pull
yourself up by the bootstrap and if you can't —do us a favor and die' philosophy.
This is some of the most hateful and mean-spirited attitudes
towards poor people this country has seen since the early 1900s and the era of "Social Darwinism"—
that is the idea that poorer people are inferior and deserve to die. When they
die out they clean out the gene pool. That kind of thinking seems to have
returned to the USA ,
from the late 1800s, by the Republican Party and their rich backers, including
the Kochs.
Amazingly, the idea of expanding Medicaid is not about
giving health care to the idle poor. Those people are already eligible to get
some forms of Medicaid. No— we are
talking about people who are working for minimum wage, people who—although they
work—have no medical insurance, benefits and most will die early because they
can not afford to go to see a doctor until it is too late. They have no way to
pay for doctor visits or the medicines they need if they are sick. Just
recently we have seen how pharmaceutical companies jack the price of their
medicines as high as 1,000
percent or more. The working poor
etch out a dreary existence living from paycheck to paycheck and they have NO
benefits. They usually work either full-time or close. Some work more than one
job to make ends meet and they still can't afford the high cost of medicine.
According to the Kochs and their ilk, these people do not
deserve the simple right to live in decent health as most Americans do. Many
will die way before their old age simply because they will only go to a doctor
when there ailment is so bad they can no longer stand it. Usually if they have
cancer or some other serious disease it will be way to late to save them. They
will simply die early.
It is hard to believe that a civilized nation that claims to
be the 'worlds police" can be so cold and inhuman. This country has taken
on such nations as Democratic People's Republic
of Korea (North) Korea and Syria , for their violations of human
rights. But even in the DPR Korea they have health care for all.[1] They don't intentionally let
their poor die from disease. That is way different from the US . In fact the
US
is the ONLY country in the fist world that lets its poor die without health
care.
This is not just a case of bad policy by the Kochs and their
Americans for Prosperity. This is out right murder. To entertain such debate,
defending AFP policy, is rubbish. It is an outrage that the entire world should
oppose and CONDEMN. It is despicable that anyone in the US would support
letting our working poor die of disease.
DISPICABLE!
DISPICABLE!
[1] Even though the DPR Korea has problems providing health care presently, the government still has a policy of providing health care to all people. That is a major contrast to theUS where health care is ONLY for those who can afford it. See: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/Resilience/~/media/3FB4B90DFD794DF7BCF7B9BAC9E3925E.pdf
[1] Even though the DPR Korea has problems providing health care presently, the government still has a policy of providing health care to all people. That is a major contrast to the
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