GOP Hypocrite of the Week Rep. Mike Pence Thinks Government-Run Healthcare is Evil, But Voted to Support Medicare

Mike Pence

The citizens attending town hall meetings on healthcare reform just so they can scream at their representatives about the evils of socialized medicine are driven by a number of falsehoods and unfounded fears. Perhaps the most potent of these is the fear that, like the post office and the Department of Motor Vehicles, government is going to screw up Medicare if they get their hands on it.

"Get your grubby government hands away from my Medicare!" they yell, not comprehending the irony of the demand. The reason they don't get how funny they are is because the GOP is spreading this lie as fast as they can.

The fact is government-run healthcare works, and if the majority of Americans figure that out, the giant insurance companies (and the politicians who rely on their contributions) are sunk.

As we noted on Medicare's 44th birthday last week, Republicans have been trying to kill the popular government-run healthcare program since it was first introduced. Of course, they don't want to say that in a forum where it counts. They got the opportunity to do so recently, when Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) introduced a bill to kill Medicare just to see if Republicans would put their votes where their mouth is. Not one lawmaker was willing to do so.

"For some reason Republicans don't like publicly funded, publicly administered health plans, except for Medicare, and -- I guess -- except for the Veterans Administration and except for the healthcare that our military gets through the Department of Defense," Weiner said in an interview with Rachel Maddow after the unanimous vote. "When my Republican colleagues pound the drum and pound the podium about how they hate government-run healthcare, I guess they haven't looked at what they get."

(Unlike his Republican colleagues, Weiner acted on his beliefs, subsequently introducing a single-payer, Medicare-for-all bill.)

Now, clearly this is a popular talking point with all Republican politicians. But we've got to hang our GOP Hypocrite Hat on someone, and Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) was a perfect candidate, thanks to his frequent rants over the "big government takeover of health care," one of which occurred on the same day he voted to support government-run Medicare. From Think Progress:

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), another conservative who has railed against a government-run health care plan, actually denounced a public option in health care while declaring his support for Medicare on the very same day. Despite the chorus of attacks from the right, the public remains overwhelmingly in favor of the choice of government coverage.

And he isn't stopping there. Just this week, Pence slammed an attempt by the White House to counteract some of the false information about the healthcare proposal floating around the Internet as a way to gather an enemies list of Americans who disagree with the administration. Heaven forbid the Obama Administration try to get the truth out about the GOP's carefully crafted healthcare distortions.

Basically Pence wants to have it both ways. He slams government-run healthcare, but when he has the chance to get rid of it, he completely chickens out, along with the rest of his party. And that's why he's our GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.

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This is Mike Pence's first GOP Hypocrite of the Week Award. Welcome to the club. You can see a list of all previous nominees here.

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