Flashback: Michael Steele Lacked Health Insurance For Years, Told Kids Not To “Break Anything”
Hoo boy, this one’s rich. Turns out that RNC chair Michael Steele, who agreed approvingly that health care failure could be Obama’s “Waterloo,” himself lacked health insurance for years and even advised his own children not to get hurt because he couldn’t afford to pay their medical bills.
A Democrat points out that these revelations can be found two pieces about Steele that ran during his failed 2006 Maryland Senate campaign. In November of that year, The Washington Post reported on Steele’s opposition to universal health care this way:
Steele’s position reflects his experience as a self-employed consultant who went for three years without health insurance.
Steele even confessed on the stump that this led him to tell his kids to take extra care with their health, according to an October 2006 WaPo article:
He told an audience in a recent speech that his family went without health insurance for three years.
“Don’t break anything, because Daddy can’t afford to fix it,” he recalled telling his sons then.
Steele, presumably, now has insurance, so his family doesn’t have to be quite so careful. Yet in an internal memo obtained by HuffPo, the RNC says it will “engage in every activity” to slow down a proposal that could give insurance to people who currently have to hope their kids don’t “break anything” because they “can’t afford to fix it.”
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Steele’s lucky he didn’t have children with a congenital health condition!
I swear if the Dems. don’t beat the drum on this one I’m going to loose my mind! This is just too EASY!
Your last paragraph nailed exactly what they need to say.
Greg, you know anything prior to Jan. 2009 is ancient history and never to be brought up again don’t you?
You know why they are saying it will be Obama’s Waterloo?
Projection – they know that when it passes, Obama will go down in history as one of the greatest American presidents ever.
They know.
“Projection – they know that when it passes, Obama will go down in history as one of the greatest American presidents ever.”
That is way more of an “if” then a “when.”
And, in my not at all humble opinion, based on his desire to dump habeas corpus for preventive detention; his unwillingness to make the banksters pay for their destruction of the economy, not to mention that his economic team is made up of the very criminals who are responsible for so much of that destruction; that he is unwilling to end legalized bigotry against ****; his complicity in the Bush/Cheney war crimes by not investigating and prosecuting them (except for, maybe, the lowest-level grunts); his expansion of the war in Afghanistan with almost daily killings of civilians there and in Pakistan; his continuation of the unconstitutional use of signing statements; and his creation of an Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives headed by a person who is not only morally opposed to abortion, but to contraception as well.
Even with the public option, a spectacularly weak excuse for single payer health care, he has a long way to go before he is good, much less great.
But that’s just my opinion.
This is actually something I’m surprised doesn’t get more attention. I’m told there are a lot of people out there with “gold-plated” health insurance plans who therefore don’t care about reform. Well, first of all do they have no worries whatever about losing their jobs and thus their coverage?
But that aside, don’t most of these people have kids. Most employer plans only cover kids until they reach age 21-22 or so. I’m one of those lucky people with a good plan I can’t lose, but it only provides permanent coverage for me and my spouse. My kids are approaching the cutoff age, and I am worried. They might go many years (if ever) before they have stable jobs with good coverage. They don’t have major health problems now, but you never know what is going to happen. Young people do get sick, have bad accidents, etc. If that happens, what do I do? Bankrupt myself and my spouse in order to provide care for my child? Not a choice I ever want to face.
Universal coverage is in everyone’s interest. Think about your kids!
The USA is the only western and developed country that doesn’t have healthcare for their people, except the politicians that get LIFETIME benefits paid for BY THE PEOPLE. Their excuses are disturbing to say the least. Lies and manipulation. GOP first, remember?
Steele would be lucky if his kids didn’t have the intellectual deficit he exhibits, never mind the health matter.
It really seems President Obama and the DNC don’t want to win this thing. Here’s another weapon that can be used against the Republican Party and the “conservative Democrats” who now want to back away from healthcare reform.
Not only do they have this Michael Steele statement… They can use the revelations of former CIGNA executive Wendell Potter who has spoken to PBS and other smaller outlets about how they did every unspeakable, despicable thing in the book to NOT pay for medical treatment that people paid premiums to get… but the industry also put a full court press on to undermine Michael Moore’s “Sicko.” HE ADMITS IT.
They also could run commercials using the testimony of Linda Peeno before Congress ADMITTING that she and her former employer, Humana, denied people to the point of DEATH.
With all these weapons that can be used to win this war, I just don’t get why the DNC is not fighting as hard and as dirty to get this thing done.
It’s all right there for the taking!
It seems that Michael Steele has walked the walk. I grew up without health insurance. We never went to the hospital for sniffles. Boo hoo hoo.
Grow up
Don,
Try being born with epilepsy and saying that, you self-righteous, clueless creep.
May you live in interesting times.
I’m confused.
I thought Republicans were against this plan because they were all rich and had gold-plated health insurance plans.
And yet, here’s a guy who went through a period where he and his family had no health insurance, but he’s still against government being put in control.
What is the big deal with this? The guy practiced what he preached.
It is amazing that someone this irresponsible to let his children go without health care is in a position of power. God help us.
I don’t hear anyone talking about the drug industry profiteering that the FDA enables, and I don’t see Obama or the Democrats reforming this problem. The drug industry contributes too much to their campaigns. Without reform of the profiteering and monopolizing of aspects of the healthcare industry, there is no reform.
What a wonderful blog! Please continue this great work I will be sure to check back regularly