It should be noted that the party of "life" and of "values" passed their own "healthcare" bill in 2002. And by "healthcare," I mean war.
Yes, I speak of the signature bill of the Republican Party 2000-2008, which, for the purposes of Cheneyesque historical rewrite, I'm now only going to refer to as "The Republican Healthcare Bill of 2002-2003":
Like the bill under consideration right now, The "Republican Healthcare Bill" cost around 940 billion dollars in under seven years (not ten).
Yet rather than lowering the Federal Deficit, the "Republican Healthcare Bill" simply added almost a trillion dollars to the Federal Debt in under seven years. Given the total federal debt of over 200 years of American government in 2000 was at around 5 trillion dollars, this means the "Republican Healthcare Bill" added 20% on top of the total federal debt.
But surely this was worth it. Since the Republican Party is the "party of life" and the "party of values," then what we got in return must've been worth adding 20% to the federal debt, right?
Right?
Well lets go to the tape:
The "Republican Healthcare Bill" instead provided the following:
- The violent deaths of over 4,000 young Americans
- The maiming and permanent injury and disfigurement of over 30,000 Americans
- The violent deaths of approximately 200,000 Iraqis
- The displacement and destruction of the homes of over 1,000,000 Iraqis
- An economic recession in America leading to 10% unemployment, over 1,000,000 additional Americans slipping under the poverty line, and over 40,000,000 Americans uninsured
Unlike the bill under consideration now, the "Republican Healthcare Bill" didn't cover any Americans for health insurance issues, nor did it help them pay their premiums. So by "health" I mean "death" and by "Care" I mean "War."
Now I know what you're thinking.
How could this "Republican Healthcare Bill" be called a "healthcare" bill at all if it has nothing to do with healthcare?
Easy.
It provided old Republican Senators with a form of free Viagra. For the first time in years, they felt macho, potent and sexually virile. At least for a moment.
So, in that sense at least, it did have medical benefits.