Wow I love Iowa's Joni Ernst (R). Never thought of getting healthcare from my CHURCH!!!

[LynneSin]

What an amazing thought? I mean why should we have to pay all those ghastly costs for crazy things like chemotherapy or hip replacement or even to get expensive prescription drugs when according to Ms Ernst we could just go to our local Churches and they have all that stuff there.

Hell she may have solved the entire Ebola crisis - if you got the symptons just head to a chuch and the local pastor there probably has a stash of vaccines that can fix you up there.

I can't wait for us to elect such a smart woman to lead our country with such innovated ideas!!!!

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/iowas-joni-ernst-obamacare-is-bad-because-people-should-rely-on-churches-for-help/

Iowa’s Joni Ernst: Obamacare is bad because people should rely on churches for help

Iowa Republican candidate for U.S. Senate perhaps revealed more than she meant to about why conservatives are still so resistant to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Barack Obama’s health care initiative, also known as “Obamacare.”

In audio obtained by Iowa Public Radio, Senate hopeful Joni Ernst told a group of reporters that the reason Republicans oppose Obamacare is because the job of caring for the poor is simply not the purview of government. The poor, she said, should rely on churches and charitable organizations for help.

“We’re looking at Obamacare right now,” Ernst said. “Once we start with those benefits in January, how are we going to get people off of those? It’s exponentially harder to remove people once they’ve already been on those programs.”

“We have lost a reliance on not only our own families, but so much of what our churches and private organizations used to do,” she went on. “They used to have wonderful food pantries. They used to provide clothing for those that really needed it, but we have gotten away from that. Now we’re at a point where the government will just give away anything. We have to stop that.”

[Historic NY]

1. RX to pray the illness away...

pre-existing conditions no problem, so she now wants people to rely on the church...

I'm sure they have a cancer treatment prayer plan.

[Proud Public Servant]

2. My favorite part of the Ernst campaign

is that she's demonizing "people who live off the government"...in a FARM state. But then, Iowa is an irony-free zone.

[immoderate]

3. No! No! No! God LIKES people to be sick...

That's why he made so many diseases.

--imm

[VAliberal]

4. Pure quill Christian Reconstructionism

That is par for the course for theonomists and reconstructionists who advocate dismantling the welfare state, repealing progressive taxation, ending the social safety net and the elimination of the federal government in general. They believe 'charity' - including health care services - can be devolved to churches and private organizations. Gary North is one of the most aggressive proponents of reconstructionist hostility to public services. It looks like Ernst has drunk deeply of that particular flavor of kool-aid.

[Lars39]

5. That means we can now force people to give up kidneys etc if we need them, right?

[bigdarryl]

6. She's nuts

That's why that race has tightened up.After she was leading for about two months PPP has a brand new poll out

[LynneSin]

7. I can't think a comment about relying on the church for healthcare is going to fly with voters

At some point these people are going to realize this woman is a whack job.

[1StrongBlackMan]

8. Just like they did with Angle in Nevada ...

with her, "We don't need no Obamacare ... we can banter with the doctors ... a chicken for an office visit. That's how they did it in the good old days."

I think I'm seeing a pattern here!

[Paka]

9. Hopefully before the election,

and not after she gets to DC.

[TBF]

10. It's the circle of life -

people get sick, die, and God provides new babies.

Now go get some casserole at the church and pray that you're not next to go.

[blkmusclmachine]

11. Begging a rightwing pastor for food and health care is on the Christian Dominionist agenda. Look up

New Apostolic Reformation theology movement for the ghastly details. Long story short: "Convert, or die." And since they wrote themselves around the Constitution and Bill of Rights in the GWBush years right after 9/11, all they need is a willing accomplice in the White House to do their bidding.



Sieg Heil, and amen, too.

[CBHagman]

12. A little Internet search turns up more stupid/mendacious material from Joni Ernst

What she says about the government, health care, and food pantries is, to be kind, totally inaccurate.

The first public hospital in America was founded over two centuries ago, and the first public hospital in the world was founded more than a thousand years back.

[url]http://www.benfranklin300.org/exhibition/_html/3_2/[/url]

As for Ernst's claim that churches used to provide food for the hungry and other charitable services, it just proves she either doesn't know what's going on in churches, doesn't realize the extent of the problems (in other words, that the need outstrips the resources, both public and private), or that she doesn't care about the truth and is just throwing red meat to her base base. (Last two words are intentional).

On edit: More links on the story:

[url]http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/10/18/joni-ernst-food-pantries/17484821/[/url]

[url]http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/republican-admits-why-republicans-hate-obamacare.html[/url]

Sister Simone Campbell (Nuns on the Bus) has said repeatedly that we can't expect private charity to fill all needs when the need is so great. See links below.

[url]http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/sr_simone_campbell_testimony.pdf[/url]

[url]http://billmoyers.com/2013/08/01/sister-simone-defends-the-safety-net/[/url]

Campbell came under fire from some conservatives, including Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI), who joked that he was excited to challenge a nun after years of Catholic school. He demanded, “What is the church doing wrong that they have to come to the government to get so much help?”

Campbell replied, “Justice comes before charity… Everyone has a right to eat, and therefore there is a governmental responsibility to ensure everyone’s capacity to eat. Love and care makes a difference, but the issues are so big there isn’t sufficient charitable dollars there.”