Clearly, the answer is "NO!"
In Des Moines, Iowa this week, GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum said this:
"I had a woman the other day who came up and complained to me that she has to pay $200 a month for her prescriptions…I said, in other words, this $200 a month keeps you alive, she goes yes. I said, and you’re complaining that you’re paying $200 a month and it keeps you alive? What’s your cable bill? I mean, what’s your cell phone bill? Because she had a cell phone. And how can you say that you complain that you have $200 to keep you alive and that’s a problem? No, that’s a blessing!"
All I could think, while shaking my head in disbelief, was: "Does this man live in my world?" He really doesn't understand. He never will. Unless he loses all his money, is forced work to earn an average wage job and, if lucky, has a health care plan like most of us do. Then maybe he'll understand how offensive his reply was--how $400 a month for prescriptions is an awful lot to pay when you have other ESSENTIAL things to pay for too (I daresay cable is essential to people like him who are running television ads they want others to see. Besides, who gets television reception these days without a cable? Cell phone? Maybe if you need to call 911 or make a doctor's appointment or...you know what I'm saying even if he doesn't). Maybe then he will understand what it's like to wonder what bills get paid this month, if there will be enough at the end of the month for food. He will understand why his stomach clenches at the thought of his car breaking down this month. He will understand what it's like to wake up in a cold sweat at the thought of having to declare bankruptcy and lose his house because of medical bills from one single catastrophic illness. In other words, he will understand what it's like to live as an average American in 2011. This scenario does not happen in other countries, countries that take care of all their citizens by providing health care. Only in the "good ol' US of A".
The woman was right to tell him about her world, the world in which she pays $400 a month for prescription drugs. She was right, and she had an obligation to tell this man who wants to be her president what it's like to live in her world. Because Mr. Santorum, if he's elected president, will be obliged to represent her, and millions of others like her. He will be obligated to be president to women, men, every color of person under the sun, gays, straights, transgenders, pagans, Christians, Muslims, Atheists...you get my point. AND, he will be obligated to deal with OUR problems. I mean, that's why he wants to be president, right? To better the lives of ALL his fellow Americans? Right?
President Obama gets this. He really does; an example from just this week--the White House issued this statement, which says in part: "While women are more likely to need preventive health care services, they often have less ability to pay. Too often, the combination of women’s lower incomes and out-of-pocket health costs mean that women forgo necessary preventive services. But removing cost sharing requirements improves women’s access to important preventive services....Women will also have access to all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling. Though most workers in employer-sponsored plans are currently covered for contraceptives, these new guidelines offer more women the opportunity to access these important services. When half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned, we know family planning services are an essential preventive service for women. These services are critical to appropriately spacing and ensuring intended pregnancies which results in improved maternal health and better birth outcomes."
He gets it. While removing contraception from co-pays will probably never, ever impact him or his family, it's going to make a HUGE difference in the lives of women in this country. Thank you, Mr. President. We should be having a parade in your honor in every town in this nation. We women are happy, estatic.....or are we?
Fox "News" commentator Dana Perino isn't happy, but then she's not thinking about every woman when she says this:
"Now, I might be for [free birth control], if I didn't see a lot of people out there able to buy a new pair of shoes. I mean, we have to be able to make some choices here … How are we going to define poor? Because who is not in that category now who can’t get free birth control anyway? … If you can afford a $5 Frappuccino at Starbucks, look, you can pay your $5 co-pay."
Maybe you and your friends, Dana, but the rest of us live in the America that President Obama represents.
All this made me think of that quote, attributed to Marie Antoinette: "Qu'ils mangent de la Brioche"..."Let them eat cake."
I looked it up, and it turns out, she probably didn't ever say that. And certainly not in the flippant, aristocratic way that we've been lead to believe. Unfortunately, because there was no 24/7 news cycle, no television cameras or even camera phones recording her every word, Marie Antoinette will be vilified for something she didn't even say.
Too bad Mr. Santorum and Ms. Perino don't live in the 18th century. Aside from the fact that they would probably be more comfortable because they would be separated from the "commoners", they could claim they never said what they did say.
Fortunately for us, we've seen it, and maybe even heard it, just exactly as they said it. And they can be held accountable. Or, even better, dismissed by us as not worthy of our attention. We have better things to do than listen to the likes of them.
