Remember back in March when Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann demanded repeal of Obamacare, “before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens”? Well, Bachmann, as usual, got it backwards. Obamacare isn’t going to kill anyone, but the GOP using Obamacare to shut down the government could.
You’ve probably heard of the National Institutes of Health, the NIH. Their website today has a big red box on it warning that “the information on this web site may not be up to date,” because of the shutdown.
Also on the NIH website is this little statement:
NIH is the nation’s medical research agency—supporting scientific studies that turn discovery into health.
So, this should come as no surprise, and yet, sadly, it is shocking and saddening.
“At the National Institutes of Health, nearly three-quarters of the staff was furloughed,” the Wall Street Journal reports today. “One result: director Francis Collins said about 200 patients who otherwise would be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center into clinical trials each week will be turned away. This includes about 30 children, most of them cancer patients, he said.”
Terribly sad. Tragic. And so unnecessary.
“That’s why we’re here,” Congresswoman Bachmann said in March. “Because we’re saying let’s repeal this failure before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens. Let’s not do that. Let’s love people. Let’s care about people. Let’s repeal it now while we can.”
It’s time for the Tea Party and the GOP to realize that government serves a purpose, and it is ignorance, like Rep. Bachmann’s, and not Obamacare, that literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens.
Out hopes are with all the families turned away from NIH research this week, and with all the people in America who are being affected by the shutdown.
Hat tip: The Atlantic
Image by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr