Tom Cotton: 'Able-bodied' poor people shouldn't qualify for Medicaid

[DonViejo]

[VMA131Marine]

1. Well, that's one way to kick most people off Medicaid...

Tom Cotton is an asshole!

[guillaumeb]

2. Who defines the term "able bodied"?

That is the issue. If the term is defined as possessing 4 limbs and breathing unassisted there will be very few who qualify.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Well, Tom, as you well know, there's a whole industry here in Arkansas to

declare people not able-bodied. So, that means about 240,000 of your constituents will loose coverage.

[Lanius]

4. Even poor people who are "able-bodied" but have a serious mental illness?

[OnDoutside]

8. It doesn't matter, the key word is "Poor". Whether you are able bodied or not, Healthcare is a right

not a privilege.

[surrealAmerican]

5. As usual, a Republican is trying to imply ...

... that people who can't afford private insurance are all unemployed. Maybe they just have employers who not only pay poorly, but also don't provide benefits.

[world wide wally]

6. And able bodied billionaires shouldn't qualify for tax cuts

[Cicada]

7. He just assumes such people aren't working for low wages

But if you can work, mentally capable of working, have access to transportation you can afford, have access to child care you can afford, and don't have to take care of someone needing your care, and don't have any other reasonable reason to not work, then I think it's fair to require work, for a job provided by the government if others are not offered to you.

[OnDoutside]

9. No, he is not. He is assuming that if you force people into "jobs", they will be paid a sufficient

salary to be able to afford private healthcare.

Tapper missed the obvious question "Senator, even if you got all those able bodied people off Medicaid and into a job, they couldn't afford to buy private healthcare, so you are sentencing tens if not hundreds of thousands of Arkansans to death, aren't you ?"