'Nobody Dies Because They Don’t Have Access to Health Care,' Says Elected Idiot

By Lauren Evans | May 6, 2017 | 10:12pm

Politics

There’s stiff competition lately for the role of Greatest Asshat in Politics, but Rep. Raul Labrador from Idaho has won the crown for the weekend. (Kidding, something even more horrible will happen tomorrow, I’m confident.)

At a town hall in Lewiston, Idaho on Friday night, Labrador’s head was put on a metaphorical pike after he responded to an audience member who stated her concern about how the American Health Care Act, for which Labrador voted, would impact Medicaid recipients.

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“You are mandating people on Medicaid accept dying. You are making a mandate that will kill people,” the audience member said before getting cut off by her representative.

“No one wants anybody to die,” Labrador said. “You know, that line is so indefensible. Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.” (Emphasis mine, in attempt to depict my disbelief.)

We’ll never know if Labrador had more to say, since he was promptly drowned out by sounds of protest from his unhappy audience. Still, he’s had plenty of other opportunities to spread his bad opinions, which include his assertion from last month that health care is “not a basic human right.”

For Labrador’s reference, a 2009 study from the American Journal of Public Health found that before Obamacare, 45,000 people died annually from lack of health insurance.

Terrible as the AHCA is, it’s important to appreciate the little nuggets of ironic splendor that periodically present themselves, like tiny flowers sprouting from cow poop. Here’s one now! (Read the t-shirt.):

I live for these.