LePage goes way down the Gestapo-IRS path

Governor LePage’s new comments about the IRS are really quite amazing. After sort-of, but not really apologizing, he’s said that the IRS “is not quite as bad [as the Gestapo] — yet.

He also tells the reporter that it’s possible the IRS will intern Americans and that they will be killing people through rationing health care.

Here are two articles from the Maine press on this, one from the Bangor Daily News and the other from the Portland Press-Herald. I include both since their coverage varies a bit.

This story continues to stun me — as I’ve explained already, as a Jew, a watcher of hyperbole in politics, and an observer of public policy and paranoia in politics.

But this is truly astounding, just on the basis of how the IRS functions as part of Obamacare.

The IRS can’t possibly affect rationing because it does nothing that’s related to medical decisions. Nothing.

All the IRS does with individuals involving Obamacare is to collect a fee/tax from people who can afford to buy insurance and but do not  — that’s 1-2% of the population — and to give substantial subsidies to people who are in the private insurance market — that’s about 6% of the population.

What the IRS does with Obamacare is exactly like getting a tax credit or deduction (or not) for having/not having mortgage interest or putting/not putting money in a retirement account.

I hate to be this blunt, but must conclude that Maine has a governor who doesn’t understand the very basics of the law. There are rational reasons to oppose the ACA, from many different perspectives.

However, to disagree with something you should start with understanding it.

And, of course, it would be best to can those Gestapo-IRS comparisons.

For more on this story and to listen to LePage’s remarks on the Gestapo-IRS-Obamacare connection, check this link.

And now you can see the above video, which includes death-panel like comments from LePage. You see, LePage says that the government will decide if eighty-five year olds will get certain medicine that they’d give to twenty year olds.

 

Amy Fried

About Amy Fried

Amy Fried loves Maine's sense of community and the wonderful mix of culture and outdoor recreation. She loves politics in three ways: as an analytical political scientist, a devoted political junkie and a citizen who believes politics matters for people's lives. Fried is Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine. Her views do not reflect those of her employer or any group to which she belongs.