The Meanest Republican In Congress

The meanest Republican in Congress? A few days ago I would have said there were a lot of nominees for this "honor". But after his recent pronouncements in a Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee hearing, I think the crown has to go to Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky).

We already knew that Paul was opposed to the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s. He has said he believes they were unconstitutional, and if he had been in Congress at the time they were being considered he would have voted against them. He also believes the Americans With Disabilities Act was wrong and would have voted against that too. He doesn't think the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees equality to all Americans, should apply to minorities or disabled people.

That was bad enough. But there are a lot of members of Congress that don't believe all Americans should be equal under the law (such as the numerous homophobes and misogynists in Congress who want to keep women and homosexuals as second-class citizens). Paul goes even further. He doesn't think people even have a right to food or water.

I know that sounds incredible, but those are his own words. He seems to have forgotten that both are necessary to sustain life. He also seems to have forgotten the words of the Declaration of Independence which holds that all men have certain "unalienable Rights" which include the right to "life" -- or maybe he doesn't think that document is important here in America.

And since he doesn't think Americans should have a right to life (unless they can pay for that right), it makes sense that he also believes that no American should have a right to health care or medical treatment, especially that provided by the government. Well, at least all health care paid for by the government except those payments sent to him (which he is against cutting).

He even equates a right to health care with the enslavement of doctors (including himself). He thinks if people have a right to health care then the government is going to come to his house in the middle of the night and force him to treat some poor person. But no one in the government is now (or in the future) going to force him to treat anyone. He is compelled to do that by the oath he took upon becoming a doctor -- the Hippocratic Oath which says "I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm."

Here are the incredibly mean words he spoke in the committee hearing:

"With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses.

Basically, once you imply a belief in a right to someone’s services — do you have a right to plumbing? Do you have a right to water? Do you have right to food? — you’re basically saying you believe in slavery.

I’m a physician in your community and you say you have a right to health care.You have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free health care would be."

Personally I find it horrifying that those words could come out of the mouth of any member of Congress -- of either party. Denying a right to food, water, and health care is denying a right to life -- one of the most basic rights of any American. This is not only un-American, it is morally wrong. Rand Paul is either completely insane, or he is without a doubt the meanest man in the U.S. Congress.