Rep. Steve King Is An Asshole from Daily Kos

 by Hunter http://bit.ly/fqMuq

So earlier today, Republican Congressman Steve King actually said:

"All Americans have health care, every single one."

What a noble sentiment. And what a spectacularly, blatantly false one. One would have to believe King knows full well it is false, but then again he is a conservative Republican, and conservative Republicans are at this point synonymous with manufactured realities in which tax cuts cause unicorns to fart rainbows of money across the land and decent public education is the gateway to Stalinism. So it is equally possible that King is being honest, at least within the narrow confines of his own head, and he honestly believes that no Americans are out there who do not have basic health care.

But I know some of the very people who King claims do not exist, and I expect you do too. One of my own close relatives suffers from an untreated hernia -- simple enough to fix, but untreated because he is uninsured. He has an option, of course. His "option" is to wait for it to get bad enough to cause an intestinal strangulation -- a likelihood, at this point -- at which point he will be rushed to the emergency room, hopefully operated on, and then receive a bill for some outrageous figure that he will not be able to pay. But he will only receive this treatment if it reaches the point where he will die without it -- merely being incapacitated is insufficient to receive health care.

Alternatively, he will live with the hernia for several years until he turns Medicare-eligible at age 65, the age at which we have decided it is appropriate for the American government to give a flying shit about the health of its citizens, and at which age we have decided it is appropriate for the government to become involved in providing very evil, very socialist health insurance. 63 or 64? Socialism. 65? Oh, that's fine then.

I expect if you asked around, perhaps three in four Americans would know somebody who was not receiving adequate medical care or medication because they simply could not afford it. And the other one in four Americans would be narcissistic, self absorbed assholes.

So congratulations, Rep. Steve King. You make that small and highly distinguished list of public figures too stupid -- or too willfully ignorant, or too absorbed in your own ideological illusions, or too entirely bought and paid for -- to even know that there are Americans out there suffering from inadequate medical care. Which, after all, was and is the entire purpose of this legislation. On behalf of those Americans, Representative King, I can only offer a hearty Fuck You.

You want to meet me anytime, anywhere, and I'll be happy to show you Americans who don't have the health care they need. Maybe if you met them, on one of your trips to and from the Capitol, you would condescend to acknowledge their mere existence.