GOP rep tells town hall crowd that people using the Medicaid expansion need to 'get better jobs' 26APR17

THIS is the perfect example of what is wrong with so many politicians, especially repiglicans in congress. They claim to be Christian but reject the teachings of Jesus Christ regarding the poor, the least among us. Their guiding "religious" philosophy is the gospel of greed and the perversion of the teachings of Jesus. They have created an alt-Jesus to justify their political agenda just like the apostates of Islam have created daesh / isis, the taliban, wahhabism and al-qaeda. Here is the vocalization of the gospel of greed's teaching of how to deal with the poor and their need for healthcare. Is it any wonder younger people in America are turning away from Christianity?
GOP rep tells town hall crowd that people using the Medicaid expansion need to 'get better jobs'

Rep. Warren Davidson held a town hall over the weekend and his jaw-dropping comments were indicative of Paul Ryan’s heartless Republican agenda. An Ohio mother stepped to the microphone to explain her son works in the service industry and was not able get insurance before the Affordable Care Act. He was able to get insurance because of the Medicaid expansion and she wanted to know why he was so eager to take away affordable insurance from people like her son. Rep. Davidson’s answer? Quit being entitled and get a better job. Read the jaw-dropping exchange (transcript via Shareblue) and see the video below:

WOMAN: My son did not have health insurance for four years, until the ACA when Medicaid was accepted. He didn’t have health insurance because he’s in the service industry. And that industry pays minimum wage and they keep their employees below a certain number of hours so that they cannot — so that they don’t have to pay health insurance. So, many of the people that are on Medicaid are working, and they are the working poor.

Under Trumpcare, one of the major ways to make health insurance affordable is to bring back catastrophic insurance, which is basically no insurance at all. Given that, given that preventative health care is the number one way to keep people healthy in our society. Can you explain why my son and millions of others in his situation are not deserving of affordable, decent healthcare that has essential benefits so that he can stay healthy and continue working?

DAVIDSON: OK, I don’t know anything about your son, but as you described him, his skills are focused in an industry that doesn’t have the kind of options that you want him to have for health care. So, I don’t believe that these taxpayers here are entitled [sic] to give that to him. I believe he’s got the opportunity to go earn those health benefits.

In fact, according to the National Restaurant Association, there are an estimated 14.7 million Americans in the restaurant service industry, accounting for 10% of the total U.S. work force. Contrary to popular Republican beliefs, these jobs are not filled with teenagers and many or most do not provide basic health care insurance. The same can be said for the retail industry, with companies like Walmart costing American taxpayers $6.2 billion per year in public assistance for their employees.

"The study estimated the cost to Wisconsin’s taxpayers of Walmart’s low wages and benefits, which often force workers to rely on various public assistance programs," reads the report, available in full here.

"It found that a single Walmart Supercenter cost taxpayers between $904,542 and $1.75 million per year, or between $3,015 and $5,815 on average for each of 300 workers."

Walmart did get their minimum wage to $9 an hour in 2015, but that’s hardly enough to close the gap in public assistance. Meanwhile, restaurant jobs, particularly fast food jobs, are fastest growing category in the country.

The National Employment Labor Project, which advocates for the jobless, pointed out another sobering statistic Friday: Fast food industry jobs have set the pace since 2000, rising 23.3 percent, against a 5.1 percent overall gain in private sector job growth.

In New York City specifically, fast food jobs exploded by 87 percent, or about twice the rate of the previous 15-year period. In New York state, the gain was 57 percent at a time when private jobs increased by just 7 percent.

Perhaps Rep. Davidson would do well to meet more of the people in his district who work in these jobs. Listen to their stories, hear their daily struggles to make ends meet. Get to know some of the people with pre-existing conditions in his district. Otherwise, with an attitude like the one he displayed this weekend, voters may be sending him into a new job in the not-too-distance future. 

See the exchange in the video below (starts at the 37 minute mark):

Rep Warren Davidson Town Hall