As the opioid epidemic rages, this is what Pennsylvania Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone, now running for Congress in a special election set for March 13, had to say to the mother of an addict:
“We don't have any more funding, OK? We're going to try to cut the budget. So, where do I take it from?” he asked the woman, who sat quietly a few feet away. “Do I take it from the autistic children?”
“You don't have to answer that right now, but just think about it,” he added.
“You don’t have to answer that right now”—how generous of him. Gee, Rick, considering that people are dying and towns are being ravaged, maybe you find the money. Possibly even by taxing rich people, if that’s what it takes. And as a thing to say to a woman there to testify about her child’s addiction? Wow, no wonder Republicans are worried about this race. But while Saccone was unusually and problematically blunt, he was just saying what Republicans believe: it’s more important to cut government funding than to fund programs to help people. Saccone also has a keen analysis of where the opioid crisis came from, and it’s not pharmaceutical companies pushing their patented drugs for larger profits:
“I think it's time for us to admit that we're fighting a culture that promotes rebelliousness and vulgarity, disrespect, selfishness,” he said. “We have to be willing to accept that we need to take back our youth and restore the traditional values that we all grew up with around here, because they've all deteriorated.”
Yes, and violent video games are responsible for school shootings. By contrast, the Democratic candidate in the race, Conor Lamb, has this to say:
“There is a huge role for the government to play here,” Lamb said at the candidates' final debate Saturday night. “Only the government can build those [treatment] facilities and fill them with beds and fill them with qualified staff. And only the government can have the health insurance programs to support these people.”
Quite the contrast there.
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