Is this "freedom" Republicans ramble about all it's cracked up to be?

[tmyers09]

We all know by now that pretty much every Republican has gone on about how this bill will "take away our freedoms". Whose freedom are they talking about? The health insurance companies' freedom to charge exorbitant amounts for coverage? That same industry's freedom to drop aforementioned coverage for any menial reason they can find? Because it sure as hell isn't the freedom for the American people. The government needs to regulate the shit out of these companies, because they do not have their customers' best interests in mind at all. The politicians need to watch out for the people who vote them in, not their financial backers. If the American people's "freedom" is to buy a horribly overpriced and inadequate product, you can fucking count me out.

[Christa]

1. Freedom?

What freedom?

Don't make me laugh. We are not free at all.

[tmyers09]

2. Precisely. eom

[Avalux]

3. They sure do love that word freedom, don't they?

By now, anyone thinking person should know that when Pukes invoke that word, whatever it's attached to means the opposite for the American people.

[anonymous171]

4. It's not freedom at all. It's slavery. nt

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. Yet they want to cap attorney fees and non-economic damages in medical malpractice claims

Allright, I think some regulation in that area might make sense. But why aren't they also calling for caps on medical malpractice insurance premiums at the same time? There's no guarantee that insurance companies would pass on the savings to the doctors or the public if they received this gift. How is it that businessmen (insurance companies) need their freedom from government interference but attorneys also making a living should not have it? Is that not a little inconsistent?

[47of74]

6. Republicans are going to turn the word freedom

Republicans are going to turn the word freedom into one of the most hated and despised words in the English language if they keep going like they do. For Republicans when they get up on their high horses about freedom, they mean freedom for wealthy people and corporations to do as they fucking well please.

[dmr]

9. that and patriot n/t

[Are_grits_groceries]

7. They are talking to their base.

They are trying to refer to the Bill of Rights and other patriotic ideas. They want to rile people up and make them assume that the Constitution or whatever is being changed.

That's why they are saying freedom, rights, and all that stuff.

[Cirque du So-What]

8. They're for freedom alright

freedom for corporations to run roughshod over the rights of actual citizens. Repeal corporate personhood! Libertarians, take note: you will make no inroads with the American people if you persist in beating the drum for corporate freedoms. Observe the repugs and their disintegrating party and learn. I won't hold my breath, as libertarians have shown me their infinite capacity for smug self-satisfaction.

[patrice]

10. THAT is an extremely interesting question. What, precisely, ARE they talking about?

I recently helped my mother-in-law, Dorothy, through the last several years of her life, on Medicare. There was absolutely nothing denied to her; she could go where she wanted to go, see whom she wanted to see, take whatever medications she wanted to take. The only limits on the situation were our own ignorance.

There are Public Options and then there are public options, weak, strong, indifferent, and everything in between.

A Public Option that is Medicare for All, in my experience, would represent the maximum level of freedom for the most people.

You're going to hear people say, "We can't afford Medicare for All, so some people can have Medicare and some just can't" and I want to say in return, "Okay, tell us then who will be left out. Please specify the persons and groups who "we" will NOT INCLUDE in the care that others get."

All of the other great industrialized nations on Earth do it, so can we. The Public Option should SIMPLY include allowing people to

BUY INTO MEDICARE.

Let me give my health insurance dollars to Medicare AND free my employer from having to buy this benefit for us.

[tmyers09]

12. Exactly.

Socialism, Rationing, Takeover, and the like, are merely codewords for "Things are lookin pretty damn fine from where I sit, if you don't have it, you don't deserve it!"

[tmyers09]

11. Holy shit Ted Poe is dense.

"WE MAHT AS WELL CROSS OUT 'WE THE PEOPLE' AND WRAHT IN 'WE THE SUBJECTS OF BIG GOVMINT. AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS."

Hmm, you don't say? Cause the way things are right now, it might as well say, "We the slaves to the corporations."

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. Is he the one who kept saying "IN-shurnce", IN-shurnce"?

[Odin2005]

14. It's their delusions about liberals being Evil Commies. Pathetic.

[Jack Rabbit]

15. Certainly not

Freedom to Republicans means the freedom of big business to give the people the business.

(Paraphrase of David Horowitz, the consumer affairs reporter: Most businesses are in business to do business and not to give you the business.)

[C_Lawyer09]

18. In appreciation

for that little gem of a witticism.

[Ironman3476]

16. Who are YOU to deny MY freedom

To exercise whatever delusions I want about my insurance? There is peace of mind in ignorance, and as long as I never get very sick or hurt, reality never has to be addressed.
There is no place for these arguments in my world, and I don't appreciate you trying to imply that my health care is not the best in the world.
Thank God we have for profit insurance which makes it all possible.

[JoeyT]

17. Of course Republicans/conservatives love freedom.

Freedom to starve. Freedom to live in the street the second the economy turns, as long as they don't have to look at you. Freedom to die far from home in useless wars. Freedom to die of the disease of your choice. Freedom to be beaten to within an inch of your life for being the wrong color, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. Freedom to live in a world with air you can't breathe and water that could be used as paint stripper. Freedom to poison yourself, but only if it isn't any fun and someone can make a buck off it. Freedom to be told exactly what you can do in your personal life. Freedom to be locked up and have your life destroyed for whatever vice they're outraged about this week. Freedom to have that kid whether you want to or not. Freedom to worship any god you want, so long as you worship the same one they do and worship it the same way they do.

They're quite active supporters of freedom. They support your freedom to do exactly what they want and they support their freedom to do exactly what they want. Anything else just wouldn't be "Their America". U S A! U S A!
I suppose they'd say "unAmerican". Even though unAmerican is one of the stupidest fake words ever.

This actually started out as a joke, but I can think of policies they're proud of as an example of everything in that list. It's kind of depressing.

[patrice]

19. Yes it is, because it's real.

[izquierdista]

20. Republican "freedoms"

The freedom to marry someone of the same sex.
The freedom to buy beer on Sunday.
The freedom not to go to church.
The freedom to remain seated during the national anthem.
The freedom to read Playboy (for the articles) at the public library.
The freedom to get birth control or the morning after pill.
The freedom of women to terminate a pregnancy gone wrong.
The freedom to use file sharing software.
The freedom to organize a union at your workplace.
The freedom to self-medicate with dried herbs.