Republicans do not care about sick uninsured children not getting treatment and dying. So this latest kerfuffle between CNN's Dana Bash and Majority Leader Harry Reid is ironic in the extreme (where Bash plays the part of speaking for Republicans of course):
DANA BASH: You all talked about children with cancer unable to go to clinical trials. The House is presumably going to pass a bill that funds at least the NIH. Given what you’ve said, will you at least pass that? And if not, aren’t you playing the same political games that Republicans are?
HARRY REID: Listen, Sen. Durbin explained that very well, and he did it here, did it on the floor earlier, as did Sen. Schumer. What right did they have to pick and choose what part of government is going to be funded? It’s obvious what’s going on here. You talk about reckless and irresponsible. Wow. What this is all about is Obamacare. They are obsessed. I don’t know what other word I can use. They’re obsessed with this Obamacare. It’s working now and it will continue to work and people will love it more than they do now by far. So they have no right to pick and choose.
BASH: But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?
REID: Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own. This is — to have someone of your intelligence to suggest such a thing maybe means you’re irresponsible and reckless –
BASH: I’m just asking a question.
The sound bite is "why wouldn't you help one sick child with cancer"? Never mind, of course, that the question would not ever have come up if Republicans weren't holding the country hostage over their demands - one of which is to shut down Obamacare!
Yes, in typical GOP fashion, they make a political spectacle out of one child while ignoring the millions that Obamacare is trying to insure.
An estimated seven million children are uninsured in the United States, despite recent efforts to extend coverage under the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Where is Dana Bash asking Ted Cruz "why won't you help 7 million sick children"? And the little ensuing soundbite of Cruz saying "why would we want 7 million sick children to get health care"? And weeping for their fates?
Uninsured children who wind up in the hospital are much more likely to die than children covered by either private or government insurance plans, according to one of the first studies to assess the impact of insurance coverage on hospitalized children.
This sounfbite is now circulating the internet as Reid the ghoul who will deprive children of healthcare. The irony burns over the spectacle of the ghoulish Republicans pretending to care about one sick child.