If you don’t like it, move

by | May 3, 2017 | Editor's Blog, Obamacare | 11 comments

Yesterday, US Rep. Robert Pittenger uttered the “Let them eat cake” statement of the Obamacare debate. The current bill floating through the House of Representatives allows states to waive requirements that insurers cover pre-existing conditions. In response, Pittenger said, “People can go to the state that they want to live in.”

When you have the type of money Pittenger has, that might be true. He can move wherever he wants with little consideration to the impact it would have on his finances. He’s a multi-millionaire who landed in North Carolina from Texas and accumulated a fortune in real estate investing. He has neither deep ties to the state nor faces the financial burdens caused by moving.

That’s not true for most working people. They need the job they’ve got, even if it falls short on health coverage. Finding a new job in a new state and moving because of better health benefits would cause serious financial stress during the transition. Besides, if that’s the plan, won’t states that offer better health coverage get besieged with people with pre-existing conditions, driving up the cost even more?

Really, Pittenger’s statement gets back to the definition of “freedom” that the free-marketeers prefer. In their reckoning, freedom is most closely tied to the ability to spend money as a person sees fit. In Pittenger’s mind, freedom is the ability to move across state lines, as if most working people can pick up and move at will. That may work in theory, but it fails practically.

That kind of sums up most of the repeal-and-replace bills the GOP has rolled out so far.

11 Comments

  1. Sandra

    Let’s turn this around and say no one should move to North Carolina for obvious reasons. This would make many such as this guy happy but not good for the overall economy of the state.
    I was in a medical field for 35 years. We all have pre existing conditions we just do not know it yet and this includes the residents of NC and Rep Pittenger.
    Discretion is as they say the better part of valor. He has yet to learn this valuable lesson.
    Thank you.

    • Mary Shrimplin

      Pittenger…you just signed your political death warrant…you are on your way out…I will do all I can to see that you are defeated in the next election.

  2. Troy

    Representative Pittenger,

    With all due respect to your office, how much of an imbecilic ass could you possibly be?

    I’m living in the State I chose, thank you very much. What I didn’t choose however, was you.

    It is woefully obvious, given the direct quotes of your comments on “Jeffersonian Federalism” that you haven’t the slightest idea who Jefferson really was and what Federalism really is. Jefferson owned slaves as well; how does that factor in to your reality disconnect?

    In your dystopian Federalist utopia, I’m sure you would prosper and grow your personal wealth even more. How does feeding your own interests factor into your representing the people of the district you’ve been elected to represent?

    Of course, you’re living in the State you’re wanting to live in, aren’t you? The Great State of Pittenger.

  3. Mark Cable

    I think the real problem is the country and states are run by the “wealthy” and they are somewhat detached form the reality of “low and moderate income individuals”. That goes for “Republicans & Democrats” alike. When we allow all of this “undocumented money” to buy the government, the poor will suffer.

  4. Danny camerOn

    Re: Rep Robert Pittenger. Office numbers: 202 225-1976; 704 917-9573; 704 362-1060;910 303-0669. I gave a true story of a friend who lost her son to cancer. And what her family would have gone through if his Trumpcare had been in effect. Suggested he visit a Ronald McDonald house to see what real people deal with. Calling does make me feel better even though it gets me wound up.

    • Norma Munn

      So tired of calling, writing, etc. that I have taken a brief break, but very glad to hear that you did so. And on health care, I cannot be polite at this point. The devastating consequences of no health insurance or inadequate medical care are too personal. Thanks for trying with Pittenger.

    • Steve

      It could have been even more outrageous. Pittenger might have suggested that a person with a serious pre-existing condition can always go to a McDonald fast food place for treatment and get a burger at the same time. How can this man ever be taken seriously about anything?

  5. willard cottrell

    There is very little to say about such stupidity. Republicans are ignorant, insensitive individuals. And, yes I know, I am supposed to reach out and understand their angst. Forget it. I have no interest in trying to understand and accept their Weltschmerz. A POS is a POS no matter how you frame it.

    • Norma munn

      Agree. Nothing to add that would not require language I seldom use.

  6. Jay Ligon

    North Carolinians moving elsewhere will find real estate costs to be sharply higher. Other living costs are similarly much higher in other places.

    California real estate is at least four times more expensive than property in Raleigh, N.C. San Francisco’s median home costs more than $1,000,000. So the question becomes, where are these North Carolina families going to go? As they saddle up and hitch their wagons, gather their sick children in their arms and head out west, they need to set their GPSs to a destination. Where is this place where there will be respite, plenty and health care? What gainful employment awaits the poor in Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri and elsewhere? Will those legislatures fall in line with this right wing legislature and deny sick people medical care?

    Steinbck’s Tom Joad and family left the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma for a better life in California. The Okies of the 1930’s wandered from camp to camp seeking subsistence wages, suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

    Better to stand here and fight the Robert Pittengers of the world. He’s a transplant from elsewhere who brought with him his small treasure and his anti-social philosophy. A better question is why don’t you go elsewhere, Robert Pittenger? We don’t need you, and you can afford to live in Seattle. Buh bye.

  7. Walt de Vries, Ph.D.

    Let Pittenger move. Take the millions he made in North Carolina and the hundreds of thousands of the tax dollars he has taken in congressional salary and.benefits– for “representing” the poor folk of this state– and move back to Texas.
    Where do these politicians come from?
    Talk about “pre-existing conditions,” Pittenger sure has one, doesn’t he?

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