Matt Gaetz Decries Moral Hazard Of Letting Diabetics Live By Subsidizing Insulin

FILTH.

Does Matt Gaetz think that he can go on television and be such a raging dickhole that we'll forget all about the investigation into allegations that he paid teenagers for sex ?

We will not.

Nor will we forget that he just voted against capping the price of insulin because diabetics should just lose weight, or maybe DIE, to prevent America from falling into the "serfdom" of affordable medication.

 Mother Jones flagged this letter from Rep. Gaetz to his constituents, which he later Tweeted out as a thread , explaining his vote against "victimizing" diabetics by making sure they can access the drugs they need to stay alive:

While Democrat posturing of H.R. 6833 victimizes insulin payees as people with an uncontrollable disease that are being taken advantage of and need Big Brother to throw them a raft, lifestyle changes en masse would expeditiously lower demand and the subsequent prices of insulin. 90-95% of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, which “can be prevented or delayed with healthy lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, eating healthy food, and being active.” Arbitrary price controls are no substitute for individual weight control. Since 2000, the number of diabetes cases in the U.S. has nearly doubled. The demand for insulin has increased and the requisite price increase has followed suit. In other words, the price of insulin increases as waistlines increase.

What kind of "lifestyle changes en masse" is the congressman proposing, other than fat-shaming Americans with a chronic disease and saying they deserve to die? Because he's done exactly nothing to promote healthier eating for children or adults, and instead mocked liberals for “trying to shape public opinion to be consistent with their worldview.”

“It’s a worldview where you eat nothing but kale and quinoa, where those of us who cling to our Bibles and our guns, and our fried foods in real America, are looked down upon,” he told wingnut Fox host Mark Levin in 2019.

"Real" Americans eat fried foods, and also don't get sick from obesity-related diseases, says very serious thinker Matt Gaetz.

Gaetz once joked that Rep. Jerry Nadler, who has struggled with his weight, should lead the “congressional weight loss program.” Nonetheless, MoJo notes, on his podcast last month, Gaetz claimed the he was "not here to fat shame anyone." He then launched into a jeremiad against the “obesity-embracing woketopia,” where it's "verboten to consider that a daily salad might make you more resilient to all kinds of disease than the vax of the month pushed by Big Pharma."

Defending his vote against the bill, which caps monthly insulin costs at $35, Gaetz accused Democrats of "subverting basic economic theory with the proposed codification of government price controls," without citing which "basic economic theory" he meant. If we read the goat entrails, it looks like he means supply and demand — i.e., he thinks if the government doesn't subsidize it, people will just decide not to die from lack of a drug they need to stay alive.

While assuring us that he condemns "Big Pharma’s market concentration and price gouging," Gaetz insists that "insulin price increases have more to do with increased consumer demand than the bad behavior of Big Pharma."

Here on Planet Earth, it costs less than $12 dollars to produce a month's supply of insulin, and manufacturers turn around and charge somewhere between $45 and $1,000 for it. And it's not like insulin is made of cobalt or cashmere. Eli Lilly could churn out as much of the stuff as they want to — there is no throttle on supply which is causing the price to go up with demand. That's just a total fiction.

But fiction is the lifeblood of the GOP. And panic is its currency.

While I empathize with all Americans suffering from disease and will continue to fight Big Pharma, I voted against H.R. 6833. I will not see a reemergence of FDR price controls and join the Democrats in their attempt to pave the Road to Serfdom. (10/10)

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@Rep. Matt Gaetz) 1648762020 

So Matt Gaetz, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and will enjoy taxpayer subsidized healthcare for life, sees no cognitive dissonance in encouraging poorer, sicker Americans to impoverish themselves and risk their health to fend off "serfdom." 

What can we say, man. It's fuckin' gross.

[ Mother Jones ]

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