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Jon Stewart to Christie, ‘If you have cancer and don’t have health insurance, that’s Hurricane Sandy.’
On The Daily Show, Chris Christie claimed there was a difference between disaster relief and setting up the health insurance exchange. Jon Stewart replied, ‘If you have cancer and don’t have health insurance, that’s Hurricane Sandy.’
Here is the video from The Daily Show:
Christie said that he vetoed the health insurance exchange because he wasn’t sure how much it would cost his state. Stewart pointed out that the government didn’t stonewall Christie on disaster relief by asking for all the details first. Gov. Christie replied, “The difference is that here we have people in New Jersey who are in a crisis situation that could not be anticipated.From my perspective the federal government’s always stood up for that proposition; whether it’s Katrina, Ike, Gustav, they’ve come forward and done that, so they are not doing anything different here.” Stewart said, “Here is my point, and this is where I part ways with the Republican Party in an enormous way. If you have cancer and don’t have health insurance, that’s Hurricane Sandy.”
Gov. Christie said that not having a state exchange is not the same as not having coverage. Stewart made a broader philosophical observation about the Republican Party, “It always seems to me that for the Republican Party. If it’s not something they need, it’s an entitlement of the forty seven percent that are sucking things out of the government. But when they need it, there’s all the reasons in the world it should be there to the tune of thirty billion dollars.”
Christie said that he was representing all of New Jersey, while dancing around the idea of priorities. Stewart expanded on his point, “The philosophy that I always seem to see from them is things that other people need are entitlements. Things that they need are things that should be done quickly and immediately…They have empathy for things that affect them, but have a hard time seeing the picture that other people are suffering.”
Chris Christie dodged Stewart’s point that Republicans appear to have an inconsistent set of priorities. The Republicans are all about the federal government when they need something. The federal government is bad when they try to extend healthcare coverage. How would Christie like it if the federal government told New Jersey that no disaster relief would be released until the exact cost was known?
Christie didn’t see to want to tell Stewart the truth. Last month the Koch Brothers warned him not to set up the health insurance exchange. His veto had everything to do with trying to get back into the good graces of the right wing billionaires who will be critical to his 2016 presidential campaign. Christie doesn’t want his “brand” tarnished by working with the Obama administration on the health insurance exchanges. That’s what this is really about.
The Republican governors who are taking an ideological stand against these exchanges are hurting the people of their states. I believe that the state/federal partnership option would be the most effective. States should at least have a hand in running these programs, because local and state governments understand the needs of their residents and are in the best position to efficiently run these exchanges.
When Republican governors put partisan politics or presidential aspirations ahead of doing what’s right for their states, the result is a muddled and inconsistent philosophy like Republican Chris Christie.
Jon Stewart was right. For the uninsured who are dying everyday, their illness is their Sandy. Chris Christie doesn’t want to say this, but he’d rather be president than help the uninsured get the best care possible.
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12 Responses to Jon Stewart to Christie, ‘If you have cancer and don’t have health insurance, that’s Hurricane Sandy.’
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Maranon
Dec. 7th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
The GOP representatives need to have a yearly catastrophic event in their personnal life, to begin to walk in the shoes of those folks whom they represent.
Many people end up losing their home and wealth as a result of serious health issues. The sovernment health coverage that congress has, is great and works well for them and their familes, they just do not want the rest of us have is so easy.
Governor Christie is skating on very thin ice, after hugging Obama in public and praising the rapid storm response.
If he wants to live to see another re-election, he best not to be kissing any other democratic project or else..
Debra Vermaas
Dec. 7th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Jon Stewart’s stomach must be really really full, as it appears he had Chris Christie for lunch.
ThomasW
Dec. 7th, 2012 at 12:38 pm
How do we even raise our kids in a world where even when the truth is spoken it is something other than the truth. Rep can’t see their hands in front of their faces. When you put the rest of the American people into slavery. Who will be able to your goods,your services. What happen when you become the minority should they treat you like you have treat them. The world is watching America.
Laura Nason
Dec. 7th, 2012 at 12:41 pm
Does anyone remember Ed McMahon? Johnnie Carson’s sidekick? HE was a multimillionaire too. HE got cancer and lost everything. HE was about to lose his home as a result. Guess who stepped in and save it. None other than Mr. Birther Himself, Donald Trump. Ed died shortly after that but at least he didn’t have to live to the end in a hotel or in the streets. That is the fate of those of us who have no one to step in and help us.
WE didn’t ask to get sick either. WE never once thought how we could live high off the hog on $700 a month disability IF we survived long enough to collect it. I personally know several who didn’t MAKE IT that long. I personally worked for the last 6 years I was able to work with worsening and untreated chest pain. When it got to crisis mode there was, finally, help available but took another year and $17000 in medical bills that I could never pay on minimum wage plus $1 and a year of eviction hanging over my head. I worked for 38 years paying into Social Security and Medicare AND at the same time a portion of MY taxes paid the salaries of the politicians who now want to throw ME into the streets saying I have too much money. MY $712 a month is TOO GENEROUS.
It’s time for politicians to live on the paltry amounts WE have to live on and LIKE IT. We need a Constitutional Amendment stating that the public and not the politicians get to write their checks and choose the amounts of the checks AND end all other perks. Maybe we should throw in that they have to live on food stamps and in a shack for the duration of their JOB.
Wuzzi
Dec. 8th, 2012 at 1:08 am
I hope that you are better now, Laura, and that the illness you had was covered by Medicaid if possible until you could finally get Medicare benefits (ya gotta love the two-year waiting period – that has been brought up to be changed several times now, but always gets voted down because of how extravagant it is to provide health coverage for disabled people an additional two years).
My disabling illness unfortunately got to crisis levels when I was no longer insured. What money I had had to all be spent or accounted for before I was allowed any kind of assistance on hospital programs and my state only provides Medicaid to pregnant women and legally disabled adults who make less than poverty level. Since my SSD benefits were just above that level, I had to spend everything I owned and get by out of pocket for the two years until Medicare could kick in.
No one should have to worry about losing their home vs. cancer, and I know a person I go to church with right now who has eschewed all but the most basic treatment for his cancer because he cannot afford anything more aggressive. Right now I’m putting off knee surgery because I don’t want the 20% copay to interfere with providing Christmas for my remaining at-home son and my other children and grandchildren. It’s hard enough to come up with anything for them, and 20% of an MRI and knee surgery would wipe that out.
Like you, though, I focus on being grateful for what I have while hoping and praying that it doesn’t get removed by the same powerful people who have received billions and even trillions in government aid (and/or stolen it from legitimate taxation) and attempt to control our country through a single political party. I keep wondering if there is any way to encourage them to give up their fourth vacation home so they can maybe be sure that the people who have worked beneath them for years can have just a little security?
A Walkaway
Dec. 8th, 2012 at 12:55 pm
An idea that we do for Christmas – I bake Chocolate-Mint brownies for everyone (each couple gets a batch, plus my single niece gets one too), and if we can afford it some little gifts along with the food. My wife also makes some of her wonderful home-made bread (whole wheat or specialty). They know we’ve been battling poverty for almost our entire married life (29 years as of last month) and that we do the best we can.
We’ve gotten food (little specialty cheeses, custom coffee, etc.) in return as well – and really appreciated it.
Fedup
Dec. 7th, 2012 at 12:56 pm
Well it seems the republican brand will never die. The ignorance they all display never ceases to amaze. After he and all the Republicans saw what happened to Mitt Romney. They still insist on standing up for the plutocrat republican and not for the people that really need help. He will even turn his back on the average Republican that will time after time still vote republican for who knows what reason, only to be out menuvered by the republican government which according to this article is and always will be controlled by plutocrats.
MONEY is there driving force not people. If Chris Cristie is so concerned with elections then don’t just do things that look good, start doing things that are RIGHT.
Beaglemom
Dec. 7th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
The Koch Brothers are running the Republican Party and, thus, they are running every state that has a Republican-controlled state house and governor. In Washington the Koch Brothers clearly control the Republican-controlled House and every Republican in the Senate. They poured money into GOP campaigns and have strong-armed their way into control of the party with their “Tea Party” facade. Americans need to know more about the Koch Brothers and what their real intentions are. We cannot afford to be like Germany in the 1920′s and slip down the fascist slope. Unfortunately the GOP opened the door to them and now has to have the courage to slam the door in their face.
Bruce Jensen
Dec. 7th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
I am a fan of exchanges in general, short of full-scale single-payer type univseral care. However, I wonder, despite the discussion above, if Christie does not actually believe that the federal exhange would be more cost effective than a state exchange. I think it might be myself, and I’m not sure that any state (save for a giant state like a California or a NY or a Texas) can compete effectively with a true national exchange. I notice that very blue Massachusetts is also opting for the federal exchange at this time – do we make the same arguments there?
As a very liberal perosn but also someone who wants to understand the true picture, I’d like to know if maybe Christie, and every other state that would rather not do the state exchange, might not be doing a smart thing. Can someone explain this to me, accurately and fairly?
Rick Shreiner
Dec. 7th, 2012 at 6:08 pm
While the point Jon was attempting to make was somewhat obvious, unfortunately Christie got the better of him by claiming that he was fighting for ALL New Jerseyians, Dems and Repubs alike, when fighting for federal money in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
What Jon failed to point out is that the “entitlements” that Christie hangs like an albatross around the necks of Dems, is that this money [subsidies, unemployment insurance, healthcare insurance, "entitlements", whatever you want to call them] are also to be had for ALL the people, whether they live in New Jersey, or elsewhere, NO MATTER what party they belong to.
Jon had difficulty making that a centrl point of his argument, and it was central to his point of dispute with Christie.
Tim
Dec. 7th, 2012 at 7:43 pm
Actually healthcare is MUCH more important than hurricane relief. If your town is destroyed by a hurricane, that’s prety bad, but as long as you’re alive, well, you’re still alive.
But without access to healthcare, you may NOT be alive. I say that being alive is more important than having your town rebuilt. If you’re dead, you don’t need a town.
A Walkaway
Dec. 7th, 2012 at 9:34 pm
You say that, and yes, health care is important. I should know… I had a stroke a year ago, but thank God it was a TIA and I recovered rather quickly. I’m being treated to prevent a second attack, and I’m glad for that. Before the program we lucked out on, the last care we’ve had was over a decade before.
However;
Saying that getting help after a disaster isn’t nearly as important makes me think that you’ve never suffered a major disaster. This is fact – if you don’t get help, you don’t recover.
Someone torched and destroyed my electronics workshop (in my back yard) – destroyed equipment I’d been buying as junk and rebuilding over the 15 years I owned a robotics repair business. They did that because I’d written a letter to the editor denouncing creationism and supporting evolution.
The closest I’ve gotten to help was a person gave me a box of dinosaur cell phones (cheap ones), and my best friend came over to help me pitch the burned test equipment carcasses out the front door (and tried to scavenge what we could). I lost the ability to earn any money on my own with that one act – plus 6 inventions that I’d been working on (with preliminary results that showed they worked or might work) that could have provided an income. I also lost the one thing that enabled me to relax… working on the inventions or messing with my radios (lost several of them).
You just don’t recover from losses like that, unless you get help. Some people don’t have the energy or resources to rebuild from scratch. It leaves a hole in you that doesn’t go away.
Especially since it was done by the very people who claim to be such “Good Christians” (they also threatened family members – that’s part of how I know it was deliberate and done by Bible Pounders).