Southern Baptist leader: Jesus wouldn’t like health care panels
On C-SPAN this morning, Richard Land, president of that arm of the Southern Baptist Convention that concerns itself with national issue, was asked by a caller to justify his opposition to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
Said Land:
”I don’t think Jesus would support the rationing panels that are in place for Obamacare. I’m getting letters every day – every day – from people who are already being rationed care since the new head of Medicare came in. They’re being told if they have terminal conditions, they can’t get treatment for other diseases.
“Even Mr. Obama said that perhaps it wasn’t the best allocation of resources to give his grandmother, who was dying of cancer, a hip replacement. So I guess she can hobble around in terrible pain with a bad hip while she was dying of cancer. I don’t think that’s very Christian, ma’am.”
The president’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died of cancer at age 86 in 2008, two days before her grandson’s election victory. Following her diagnosis, she had a hip replaced. Months later, in a New York Times magazine article, Obama wondered out loud whether high-cost operations for the terminally ill could be justified as “sustainable” public policy:
”I don’t know how much that hip replacement cost. I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement just because she’s my grandmother. Whether, sort of in the aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill is a sustainable model, is a very difficult question. If somebody told me that my grandmother couldn’t have a hip replacement and she had to lie there in misery in the waning days of her life — that would be pretty upsetting.”
The problem, the president continued, is that not everyone can pay for a hip replacement out-of-pocket:
“… So that’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues. But that’s also a huge driver of cost, right?
“I mean, the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.”
***
On the same topic, Attorney General Sam Olens said Monday that Republicans need to have their ducks in a row if and when the U.S. Supreme Court issues its ruling on the new health care law. From the Augusta Chronicle:
“Let’s assume we win the case. The Republican Party better have a bill that’s immediately filed to improve health care in this country or it will be detrimental in the November election.”
***
The Athens Banner-Herald reports that prominent Democrats, including Mayor Nancy Denson, are funneling money to Regina Quick, who’s mounting a GOP primary challenge to state Rep. Doug McKillip.
McKillip, a former Democrat, sponsored this year’s aggressive anti-abortion bill, which shortens the period during which a woman can seek to end her pregnancy. From the newspaper:
Denson gave Quick $500 on Feb. 22, according a campaign finance disclosure filed last week with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission….
McKillip angered Democrats by switching parties in 2010 and other elected officials by pushing a controversial Athens-Clarke Commission redistricting plan.Republican former mayor and Athens Area Chamber of Commerce President Doc Eldridge, who has publicly feuded with McKillip over redistricting, and Democratic former state Sen. Doug Haines also contributed to Quick’s campaign, as did a number of her fellow lawyers and some Republican activists.
During the same C-SPAN session, Land also suggested that likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney could name U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio as his running mate, as a means of “pivoting” on the illegal immigration issue — and proposing a comprehensive reform package.
***
The New York Times this morning dissects the false Internet rumor about an indictment that, 10 days ago, sent South Carolina’s governor scrambling:
It took only two minutes. An unfounded report on a little-known blog claiming that Gov. Nikki R. Haley was about to be indicted rocketed from South Carolina political circles into national circulation, along the way becoming the latest lesson in the perils of an instantaneous news culture.
The item’s rapid journey from hearsay to mainstream journalism, largely via Twitter, forced Ms. Haley to rush to defend herself against a false rumor. And it left news organizations facing a new round of questions about accountability and standards in the fast and loose “retweets do not imply endorsement” ethos of today’s political journalism.
***
The AJC’s Politifact Georgia this morning takes a look at state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black’s defense of “lean, finely textured beef” – pejoratively known as “pink slime.”
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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172 comments Add your comment
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 10th, 2012
3:16 pm
@Shar – If you don’t shift some of the responsibility to the individual, studies show they act like idiots. As long as you don’t do it for preventative care that is. Good idea.
Centrist
April 10th, 2012
3:22 pm
O.K. td, you slap them, I’ll continue to ignore them. I only read known offenders’ posts when you copy and reply to them – otherwise when I see the screen name, I skip over them. Makes reading this blog pretty fast. On this page besides your posts, I’ve only read Big Hat, gm, Shar, and Bernie.
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 10th, 2012
3:25 pm
@Straw man – He says he doesn’t read, but he’s secretly TD2….and TD.
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 10th, 2012
3:31 pm
“I am not paying attention to you. Lalalalalala, fingers in my ears. I am moderate. I am the Center. I am the Sun King. I am the Pillars of the Earth. NOT looking at you. LALALALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”
td
April 10th, 2012
3:40 pm
Shar
April 10th, 2012
3:14 pm
You are misinformed about the entire debate and have bought into the set up liberal spin.
The entire debate was about the government forcing a religious institution into doing something that is against their own religious tenants. You know separation of church and state. I am not a Catholic but it is in there beliefs that we should not be using contraceptives and for the Federal government to mandate that they provide for such things in their coverage is totally unconstitutional. BTW: there has been a case filed and the courts will say the same thing I just said. It is the left that contrived the fake hearing to hear Fluke’s testimony and Rush made a mistake to even comment on it.
There has not been a Republican candidate offer any legislation that would take contraceptives away and you women that think so are being played like a fiddle by the left. Does this make you feel like a fool.
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 10th, 2012
3:52 pm
@TD1 – That, my friend, is the single biggest load of @#$@#$ I’ve ever seen you say.
Seriously.
This is NOT about Freedom of religion and only a contard would think that. Do you seriously think women are that stupid?
I guess you do which is why you keep repeating the same contard spin.
Well the poll numbers speak for themselves. The women ain’t buying what you’re selling.
Even Rasmussen.
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 10th, 2012
3:56 pm
@Shar – When a religion acts like a business, it doesn’t get religious protections any more. Hospitals are not religious institutions, churches are. Yes, they can own churches but the first amendment does not protect everything otherwise I’d start a religion that would let me do a lot of very interesting things.
Republicans know this. The American Council of Catholic Bishops is the most politicized it has ever been in the entire history of the United States. This whole thing is an attempt by Republicans to play the martyr card and say that your catholic boss can impose his beliefs on how you get your insurance, your birth control or whether or not you can have an abortion…which is really just about controlling women.
td
April 10th, 2012
4:00 pm
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 10th, 2012
3:52 pm
Well looks liked I have been fooled. I thought you were a little more informed and intelligent and you have just proven me wrong. I guess you did not see the hearings and chose not to educate yourself. I think Centrist is correct when he said some of you are not even worth the effort.
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 10th, 2012
4:00 pm
@TD1 – Read it and weep. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/10/1082201/-Yup-That-gender-gap-is-real-19-20-points-real
You can fool some of the people all of the time (people like you as mesmerized by your Foxmasters).
You can fool all of the people some of the time (We still live in a democracy…)
But you cannot fool all of the people, all of the time. (There is no war on women.)
Keep on smokin that crack pipe though. You’re gonna get clobbered in every part of the country but the Stupid South.
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 10th, 2012
4:02 pm
@TD – I saw those ‘hearings’ and I am very much aware of Issa’s refusal to allow Democrats to bring in their witnesses to counter the parade of Bull Santorum they had come before the committee.
And, please TD….just to clarify…I never CARED if I was worth the effort. You are a Republican. Therefore you are a dining room table. Therefore incapable of reason.
I am, I assure you, infinitely more educated than you are…including, more than likely, about your own demonic positions.
td
April 10th, 2012
4:13 pm
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 10th, 2012
4:02 pm
@TD – I saw those ‘hearings’ and I am very much aware of Issa’s refusal to allow Democrats to bring in their witnesses to counter the parade of Bull Santorum they had come before the committee
“This is NOT about Freedom of religion and only a contard would think that. Do you seriously think women are that stupid? ”
So you just admitted to telling on big fat lie instead of being stupid. Typical socialist elitist response. When your intelligence is being questions admit to being a liar. That narcissism must be h3ll to deal with on a daily basis. BBBaaaahahahahaha
Shar
April 10th, 2012
4:20 pm
@td: You are not hearing me. I am fully capable of understanding the issues at hand – and I can even spell them correctly.
You do not address forced vaginal ultrasounds, because they are indefensible. You do not address the appalling sight of a Catholic priest invited to sit in an all-male panel to provide expert testimony on women’s access to contraceptives – or the disgusting hypocrisy of erectile drugs arriving at the market with mandatory coverage in insurance plans while women’s contraceptives are still being argued, as Olympia Snowe put it, “in a retro-50’s debate.” You do not address the Republican effort to stop the equal pay legislation while they strip family benefits. Sandra Fluke’s testimony was not allowed by the same Republicans who invited in Catholic priests, so Democratic women had to hold a separate hearing -which you denounce as “fake” and I regard as necessary – to solicit women’s perspective on the issue. Limbaugh’s subsequent vitriolic attack, his three-day rampage against a woman who disagreed with his position, could not have been weakly dismissed (”Rush made a mistake to even comment on it” – is that really all you can say about a direct untrue and hysterical attack on a fellow citizen?) by anyone who respects women or anyone who is interested in their concerns. Would you expect Republicans to be equally milquetoast about, say, flag burners?
Suggesting that I would “feel like a fool” for having real fears of what Republicans would do to my rights given unfettered control of Congress and the Presidency is exactly the kind of arrogance and insensitivity that is fueling women’s feeling of being under attack. I am a long way from a fool, and being called one (particularly by someone who cannot spell) is only more evidence that you neither respect me or have concerns about what is important to me. This is what is driving women away from the Republican Party. You and your party chiefs need to be very sure that this is what you want to have happen, or you need to change your approach very fast and very convincingly.
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 10th, 2012
4:21 pm
…..Yawn. Seriously?
You’re just going to call me a socialist and then say, “What you said isn’t true. What I said is.”
LOL.
Notice, folks, how he doesn’t say anything about the fact that Issa basically railroaded the farce of these hearings without letting any opposition testimony.
Can you imagine, moderate cows, what the Republicans would do if the Democrats didn’t let them call witnesses?
IOKIYAR.
When Democrats begin to have the balls of Republicans, then we’ll see real results.
I’m not holding my breath.
Is It Fair?
April 10th, 2012
5:17 pm
Centrist @ 1:38pm;
Indeed you’re right, however, I should have – but obviously could not – have copied and pasted the entire Opinion piece. Since I am a subscriber I do get the web edition so it may be interesting to you to read the OP-ED piece in its entirety:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577241513296604128.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 10th, 2012
5:19 pm
Because when you think First, Fair and Accurate, you think the WSJ opinion page.
Fair and balanced since Never. Not Even With Hell Freezing.
Is It Fair?
April 10th, 2012
5:22 pm
Is It Fair? (#11)
…that those of us who took out responsible mortgages and pay them each month (on time) have to see their tax dollars used to subsidize those who acted recklessly, greedily and sometimes deceitfully in taking out mortgages they now cannot afford to repay?
Is It Fair?
April 10th, 2012
5:25 pm
ABVM: Suppose you enlighten me and suggest a “fair and balanced” media. BSNBC? CNN? The Ed Show? Bill Mahar? The New York Slimes? Washington Post? yeah…all solidly in the tank for your Savior. WSJ is one of the few that will at least print the “other side of the story”. sport.
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 10th, 2012
5:33 pm
@ITF – People who let War Criminals get away are not ‘my savior.’
Re: Mortgages – I am 100% in favor of prosecuting every government official and businessman who let them get away with it, those involved in the settlement that let them get away with it and those that failed to prosecute it.
Re: Media. MSNBC is corporate garbage. Maddow is fairly enlightened, the rest have their moments but are still sometimes nice to Republicans.
Bill Maher is an entertainer but has useful points of information. He really attacks Republicans which makes him somewhat useful.
The New York Times helped start the Iraq War, is helping to go after Wikileaks and are generally the holes of the symbol of democrats. No, they are totally corporate sell outs.
The Washington Post gets it right sometimes but has an awful lot of contards on staff.
Here is a hint: The more you like it, the less likely it is to be meaningful.
ld
April 10th, 2012
6:25 pm
For the terminally ill, unless there is a cure or the patient is willing to take part in a test of a possible cure, then the priority should be keeping the patient pain free–not inflicting more pain with major surgeries, including replacing body parts.
It is astounding to me that the party that professes to be so “religious” cannot “In God…Trust” when it comes to medicine, especially when they near the end of their lives–but maybe that is fear of h3ll.
Aaron Burr V. Mexico
April 10th, 2012
7:49 pm
@LD – They do. Seriously. Look at their posts. They are actually seriously hurt and quietly enraged at the mockery they receive…especially since, quite frankly, lacking empathy their humor is just awful, and on some level beneath the repeated layers of denial, they know it too.
Tom
April 10th, 2012
8:25 pm
What we need to do is Get America back to GOD, and get a Christian that loves Jesus to run our country.
Aaron Burr V Mexico
April 11th, 2012
9:43 am
@Tom – Because that’s not Obama right?
You can tell a lot about a person based on their God.
Yeah, there is only supposed to be one God, but everyone seems to have their own vision of what He is.
But given the fact that a Republican God basically hates the poor, hates compassion and favors the rich; you have to reinterpret any common sense reading of the Bible so much that basically only the lucky could hope to use it for salvation.
And what does it say about a God that requires you to just basically get a lucky guess on your salvation? Predestination?
I have no use for such a God.
My God is Jesus. Not Monty Haul.