Features of Soviet Constitution (1936) according to Wikipedia:

"The constitution repealed restrictions on voting and added universal direct suffrage and the right to work to rights guaranteed by the previous constitution. In addition, the Constitution recognized collective social and economic rights including the rights to work, rest and leisure, health protection, care in old age and sickness, housing, education, and cultural benefits. The constitution also provided for the direct election of all government bodies and their reorganization into a single, uniform system. It was written by a special commission of 31 members which Joseph Stalin chaired. Those who participated included (among others) Andrei Vyshinsky, Andrei Zhdanov, Maksim Litvinov, Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Nikolai Bukharin and Karl Radek, though the latter two had less active input.[1]"

I love that Teabaggers think they have a monopoly on liking the Constitution. I'm a vegetarian, tree-hugging, bleeding-heart, birkenstock-wearing, pro-choice pinko liberal who supports gay rights and I have a Constitution right in my purse. Counting the phone app, I have two of them. If I have my Kindle with me, I have three. I bet I know more about the Constitution than this douche.

Is that a constitution in your pocket or are you glad to see me?

It's like they're trying to use the Jedi mind trick.

"Why do you want Obamacare?"

"Because I'm sick and I don't have health insurance"

*waves hand*
"Yes, you do have health insurance"

"On second though, I guess I do have health insurance"

No more morons!
Petition: http://wh.gov/yyuL

I wonder if they know that visits to the emergency room aren't free?

If a St. Christopher necklace can grant you magic powers, why can't a pocket Constitution? We know that placing your hand on a Bible automatically makes you tell the truth, so a pamphlet in your pocket must make you more patriotic.

@8 - Charity care at Harborview makes ER visits free and costs nothing. I should know, I've used it before.

@10

That's not free. The question is how you distribute the cost.

Good luck getting chemo in an ER.

So - one of the two of them is a Constitutional Law scholar. Guess which one.

these geniuses were ELECTED, so i can only surmise that the real problem is that the electorate are fucking idiots, too.

in retrospect, cutting the south loose in 1860 may have been a good idea.

@1 that actually points to a good question - did Paul Broun mean the post-36 or the pre-36 one?

dude shits out his dick

Emergency room treatment, eh? So a republican is advocating for the most inefficient (in terms of cost and keeping people well) health care system imaginable. Interesting.

It's true that without insurance you can still get treated in the emergency room.

No. That is not true. You can get stabilized in the emergency room, which, in the case of most serious illnesses or injuries, means that you get a prescription for painkillers and get sent on your way.

In Soviet Obama's America the constitution upholds you! Er, wait...that sounds good actually...

@5 - there is no requirement you be treated in an emergency room. There is a federal law, that an emergency room must stabilize you if you are in a life-or-death situation, regardless of your ability to pay.
What this means is: 1) the hospital will still charge you, and will likely send you to collections if you don't pay, 2) they will stabilize you, but then can pack you up and tell you to go to the county hospital, and 3) they will not treat diseases or injuries that are not life-or-death, but will send you to a county hospital.

Sooner or later, Republican leadership will learn the meaning and application of the word "censure"....or I might get struck by lightning and win the lottery on the same day instead. I think I know which is likelier to occur.

@10 - you know what you're saying is not true, right? You may have been treated and not been required to pay, but we all pay. Everyone that has health insurance pays, through higher costs. Everyone that pays taxes in King County pays (because this is a county hospital). Anybody who goes to UW Medicine anywhere in the area pays, because they run Harborview, and ultimately any uncaptured costs will get passed on to their customers elsewhere.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Think about it.

The Republicans are going to be saying a lot of really stupid things for the next four years.

So these ridiculous talking points didn't disappear with Romney's candidacy.

I guess it's a prerequisite in today's GOP to not know a single damn thing about how healthcare is funded, and to be wholly ignorant about any world history after the year 1982.

@17 - what kind of martini is that in your avatar ?? It looks DELICIOUS