HuffPost's Sam Stein relays background on the situation that unfolded at the forum:
A bit of a startling moment happened near the end of Monday night's CNN debate when a hypothetical question was posed to Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). "What do you tell a guy who is sick, goes into a coma and doesn't have health insurance? Who pays for his coverage? Are you saying society should just let him die?" Wolf Blitzer asked.The Los Angeles Times reports that Protect Your Care Communications Director Eddie Vale said the moment offered "a disturbing view into the Tea Party’s extreme right-wing position on health care when members of the audience clapped and cheered the idea of letting someone without health insurance die." He added, "Even worse, none of the Republican candidates on stage expressed a word of disapproval as the Tea Party audience literally clapped for blood. This was a spectacle one would have expected back in the gladiatorial combat of ancient Rome, not at a presidential debate."
"Yeah!" several members of the crowd yelled out.
Paul interjected to offer an explanation for how this was, more-or-less, the root choice of a free society. He added that communities and non-government institutions can fill the void that the public sector is currently playing.
In the aftermath of Monday night's debate, NBC News reported that Texas Governor Rick Perry said he was "taken aback" by the way in which the debate audience reacted to the exchange. "We're the party of life. We ought to be coming up with ways to save lives," he explained.
Texas, the home state of both Perry and Paul, has the highest percentage of uninsured residents of any state in the country, according to a recent Gallup report.
Protect Your Care launched a new "Let him die?" website in attempt to call attention to the group's message.
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Source: Huffington
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