Someone needs to introduce a bill to eliminate the government-run health insurance program for members of Congress.

And this guy needs to catch Ebola.

It's not all that refresshing.

Sprite is refreshing.

This is just another Republican shitting in the mouth of poor people.

I get you man, it is refreshing to hear honesty even when its bad news. At least this way they root themselves out and can't (easily) backpedal.

It's refreshing compared to mealy-mouthed hypocrites like Paul Ryan, who talk like they're trying to do something that will actually benefit non-rich people, when they know perfectly well it's bullshit.

Yeah homeless people clearly don't want homes, either.

This is literally the opposite of how representative democracy is suppose to work.

Is it? Presumably a majority of voters in this guy's district voted for him to represent them.

Yes and no. If he gets to gerrymander and choose his constituents, that's a corruption of the representative system. That aside, he has an ethical obligation to represent everyone in his district, not just those who voted for him.

He represents a pretty huge, if sparsely populated chunk of the state. But the idea of an elected official representing everyone in their district is kind of a practical impossibility. The assumption is that you're going to follow the ideology you got elected on.

I disagree. I think the agreement is that they mostly follow the platform on which they were elected while generally serving the common good. The issue here may be that it's too easy to get elected on a platform that should obviously be contrary to the common good...

TLDR; serve your voters but not so much that you do unethical and harmful things to the minority block.

Well it's a nice ideal, and maybe there are a few elected reps who try to adhere to this despite the pressures from their party leaders and various special interest groups that helped them get elected. But probably not many. Meanwhile, especially in places like Kansas, the truly poor probably vote in such minuscule numbers it's easy to discount their well-being entirely.

You act like we ever gave a shit, or it was ever even a possibility we would give a shit about the well-being of poor people.

Gerrymandering and voter disenfranchisement targets the poor.

Who's 'we'?

The American people, those with power, and those who wish to court their votes.

Take your pick?

Just wanted to clarify before pointing to a history of actual social programs designed to help the poor.
Granted, this kind of thing has gone out of fashion.

He's not wrong. I have extended family who fought Obamacare tooth and nail, despite being poor and having been un-covered for most of their lives. This, despite one member of that immediate family literally being alive following a terrible car wreck only because she happened to be making a delivery for work, meaning it fell under her company's work insurance. Even forced to get insurance, they still never go unless it's exactly as he describes: pneumonia or an arm falls off.

It's exceptionally stupid, yes, but that's what they believe and that's what they vote. Of course, it's not something to encourage, and drawing a corollary that all poor people don't want insurance would be insane (not saying he did so), but there are a significant group of voters with that stance.

Of course he's wrong. Your family's experience notwithstanding, there are plenty of reasons people avoid going to the doctor, regardless of income or insurance coverage.
But for poor people, even if they're covered, going to the doctor still means taking a day off of work (usually unpaid) and getting there.
But the main issue here - that Rep. Marshall was talking about is Medicaid. He's using this lame trope to justify denying Medicaid expansion to many of his state's poor residents. Why bother if they're not even interested in medical care or even taking care of themselves? Meanwhile, in the states that have expanded Medicaid, numbers clearly indicate that poor people are indeed taking advantage of these benefits and are measurably healthier as a result.

I've been really enamored of these Vox videos, they do a nice job of explaining these issues in simple, human terms. This one shows the attitudes and impacts of Obamacare in the heart of Trump country, rural Kentucky. This was back in January, before Trump took office. Pretty sad to think the fate that awaits these folks now-
Obamacare in Trump country