Posted: March 28, 2011 at 7:16 am

The Worst Kind of Hypocrites

Republicans are keeping up their track record of doing absolutely nothing on job creation, ostensibly what they were sent to Helena to work on, but they are doubling down on looking out for numero uno: Gutting health care benefits for their neediest constituents, while making sure their own families are taken care of.

Despite running campaigns largely focused on repealing government funded health care, and introducing dozens of bills designed to prevent the implementation of the program in Montana, the Missoulian is reporting that 95% of Republicans in the legislature take government health care benefits themselves:  even as they voted to cut health care for seniors, Montanans with disabilities, and children.

This explains why Republicans opposed a simple measure to make transparent whether members of the legislature accepted government funded health care. Polling shows most Americans oppose health care hypocrisy.  Most Republicans think those who campaigned against the health care bill should put their money where their mouth is and decline government provided health care now that they’re in office. [Public Policy Polling, 11/23/10]

A list of legislators taking the benefit can be found here.


18 comments

  2. Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

    The teabuggers have been granted immunity, immunity from HUMAN SUFFERING! I mean, just who the hell ARE these creepy, venal, sleazy, stupid bastards that they can provide for themselves withOUT any concern, compassion, or care for the neediest in our society?! How frickin’ sick can they be?

    I guess the answer is pretty obvious. SO, when you see the list of fatass b*stards livin’ LARGE of gubmint subsidies, remember, they got theirs, AND yours too! ie. see the buffalo from buffalo, fatass jumbo jimmy “cowboy code” peterson. THAT blubberbutt ain’t missed many a chow call in HIS lifetime! He apparently forgot his ELEVENTH code of the west. Saddle up to the chow wagon and put on the gubmint FEED bag…..REPEATEDLY!

    To reject the 120 MILLION in fed dollars that are OURS to begin with is unconscionable! Tell potbelly peterson and all the OTHER porkchop patriots to take OFF their feed bags long enough to look around and see the suffering they are needlessly causing others. Guess it’s EASY to be the tough cowboy when you got your mug in the feed bag!

    How bout it, Buffalo from Buffalo? You willing to give up YOUR gubmint feed bag, cowboy?? I though not you piece-o-CRAP!

  3. interested party

    From MEIC: “SB 306, sponsored by Sen. Terry Murphy (R-Cardwell), effectively repeals the voter-approved ban on new open-pit cyanide-leach mines in Montana. It allows new open-pit mines, provided the ore is processed at existing mines that continue to use cyanide leaching technology.

    If SB 306 passes, it is possible for large open pit mines – with associated acid mine drainage, metals laced pollution and operations that deplete ground and surface water, to open in places like the upper Blackfoot or Rock Creek, where industry is interested in mining low-grade ore bodies.

    Call the Governor at (406) 444-3111 OR send a message to the Governor here. Ask him to use his “veto brand” for SB 306, should it come across his desk. Tell him: “Please uphold the voters’ ban on new cyanide heap-leach mining by vetoing SB 306.”"

    • Heart of Gold

      Ummm….”interested party”…..you don’t have much of a clue about mining, do you?

      First off, there is two types of cyanide leaching operations used to recover gold: heaps and vats. The Golden Sunlight mine, which SB 306 is directed at, uses vat leaching. So, it does not affect the heap leach ban.

      Second, there is no economical way to process low grade ore at another mine – the transportation costs are far too great. No way would the MacDonald Gold project ore ever be transported to Whitehall to be processed, at 0.03 oz. of gold per ton of rock.

      Third, Rock Creek is a copper mine, which doesn’t have anything to do with cyanide leaching.

        • Heart of Gold

          Looks like the MEIC needs to do their homework.

          Lets see…at $1400/oz., a ton of “ore” from the McDonald project would be worth $28 at 0.02 oz. Au/ton (I looked up their ore, its even lower than this)….to truck the ore to Whitehall would cost about $20/ton…and that’s not even considering the mining, milling and other costs associated with such an operation. Not to mention the concept of hauling 300 million tons of “ore” down a Montana interstate.

          This bill would only affect very small mine operations who have very high grade gold deposits. Using the McDonald Project as the bogeyman to rally the faithful is pretty silly….and using Rock Creek is just plain stupid.

  4. Corrine

    How many citizens initiatives are the repubs trying to overturn? By my count-CI 64, C42, I 146, I 149, I-148, I 155 I 161, I 137 and there may be more. These wing nuts don’t care about what the voters want-only what they want themselves.

  5. Amorette

    I have come to the conclusion that the word “republican” is synonymous with “hypocrite.”

  6. Farmboy

    The Republicans deserve a beating in the 2012 elections, first for trying to overthrow any citizens initiative that they disagree with, and for trying to turn federal law into country kitchen buffet, and for wasting time with stupid bills like spear hunting, silencer hunting, birther bills, declaring the fetus as a human with due process rights, keeping gay sex illegal, ect, ect, ect. Also for taking care of their own families while not giving two swings of a rats tail about anybody else. Krayton Kerns I noticed he took the money, yet he writes his colums about how government money is socialism. Same for Jimmy Knox, and the Nazi from Kalispel or Whitefish. Same with the crew from Havre, even though one of them already has a government job, Im talking Warpath, Hansen, and Pastor Dumbass. Be that as it may, I hope all of the above enjoy their health bennies for the next year and 8mths, because come election year alot of them are going home.

  7. Moorcat

    The Tea Party and the Republicans have more than shot themselves in the foot. As an old guy, I was inducted against my will into the AARP last year. To say that seniors are angry at both the Republicans and the Tea Party is a gross understatement. My last AARP magazine was all but frothing at the mouth about the measures being taken by that organization to ensure that no Tea party associated individual is EVER elected again. It must suck for the Tea party to realise that the single largest organized voting block in the country is seniors.

    As far as the hypocritical nature of the current batch of elected officials, that goes without saying. They have made national news with their stupidity.

    All that said, it remains to be seen whether the Dems, the Independants or any other party can front candidates that can take a much more measured, honest and more importantly, effective approach at dealing with the issues facing both our State and Federal Government. Time is running out. Unless something radical is done, our country will owe more money on our debt (interest) than we make in revenue by 2020. At that point, we will be literally insolvent.

    • MTLiberty

      Time is running out. Unless something radical is done, our country will owe more money on our debt (interest) than we make in revenue by 2020. At that point, we will be literally insolvent.

      Correct – and if you think that the Dems are going to slow that up, you need to lay off the (still) legal medical marijuana.

      We are effectively insolvent now. Unless “you” want to write a check for “your” family’s share of the national debt.

      Basically, society as a whole cannot afford to be what 1/2 of society wants to be.

      • Moorcat

        First, you seem to be laboring under the misguided idea that I am a Democrat. I am not as anyone here can tell you. In fact, I am a fiscal conservative leaning independant. This is not an issue of Democrats VS Republicans or even “US” VS “Them” unless you are talking about the country vs the corporate vultures.

        Second, in very real terms, we are NOT insolvent yet. Our national revenue is more than our payment on our debt and (assuming the idiots in Congress don’t get even dumber than they have been already) as soon as the resolution is passed to raise the debt ceiling, we are not in immenant danger of legally defaulting on that debt. In terms of existing numbers, we will become insolvent in 2020. That could, of course change radically depending on what this congress and the congresses in the next 8 years do. If we fail to increase the debt ceiling, we will go into default by the end of April. If we do not fix our revenue to spending ratio, we will continue to slide down the slope to insolvency. When/if we hit that wall is up to those we elect to represent us.

        Please reserve your partisan attacks for someone else. I would love to discuss what we can rationally/logically do to resolve the situation but I have no time or energy to debate partisan BS with anyone except my brother (we do that for fun).

  9. Lt. Col (Ret., Army) Rich Liebert

    http://kochbrothersexposed.com/….’all will be revealed’….Dr. Kerns does indeed receive the $733 a month of benefits, and he ‘laments’ the facts the Dems ‘outflanked’ he and his fellows on that issue, and he even acknowledged Dems exposing ‘em and gve ‘em a point. ‘Do as I say, not Do as I Do’ doesnt’ register very well with the troops I’ve led or when being a follower in the military, and there Humanity, Courage and Clarity vital elements of leadership. Do the Koch-sters have any degree of humanity (stripping bare-bones benefits of providing simple healthcare to women, our elders and veterans, and a little food) or clarity (really, ‘jobs’ vs. spears, silencers, 14th amendment posturing, abortion amendments, etc.)? Yes, I’ll recognize their
    passion and zealous courage, but that’s it. As I watched Rep. Skees present his ‘argument’ before the GOP chair of the judiciary committee, the chair was ‘astounded’ by Mr. Skees and lack of facts, background work and simple knowledge of the Supreme Court caseloads, justices, etc. Simply put, If Mr. Skees had presented such a poor briefing to generals I’ve observed, he would have been summarily dismissed, RELIEVED of duty perhaps, and shipped to the farthest office in the post motorpool.