On October 25 I wrote that we should all demand that candidates running against health care should pledge that, if elected, they will give up their own generous taxpayer funded health care plan, as a matter of principle. So now they're elected! And they really, really need to take the pledge, this bozo first: 

Incoming GOP congressman wants his free government healthcare now!

Here's the pledge: 

 “As you all know, during my campaign for Congress I  made it clear that I consider the recent health care reform law un-American. So if it's un-American for other Americans to get decent health care not entirely subject to a for-profit company's business objectives, naturally it would be un-American for me to accept the extremely generous health care plan paid for by taxpayers, to which I am now entitled. I pledge that I will never take one dime of public money for my health care. 

 I am sure one of the insurance companies who so generously helped to fund my campaign will now be only too happy to make me an excellent deal on a private policy, and will stick with me through thick and thin, no matter how catastrophic the illness or injury that might befall me or a member of my family during my term of office or afterwards, or how wildly expensive the treatment starts getting, because, as we have recently been reminded, corporations are exactly the same as individual humans, mainly motivated by compassion, loyalty and personal warmth.

 But I am a Republican, and I don’t really need any help from anybody. Did Thomas Jefferson need any help? He got in his crops and had a fabulous garden and still had time to found a nation. I don’t even really need insurance of any kind, and you can’t make me. I am going to stand with all those courageous Americans who will be liberated when we repeal that Islamo-Stalinist individual mandate thing, free and happy and proud to pay for any medical expenses completely out of our own pockets. We eat right and exercise and maintain healthy weights, what could go wrong? Anyway, I would not have run for Congress if I thought money would be a problem.

Any public money that might have been spent providing me with health care should be returned to the treasury, but I would prefer it not to be used for  anything except tax cuts, and I mean for everybody, we can’t be fooled into determining who’s rich and who’s not merely by looking at how much money they make.  The only truly American place for tax revenues to go in a democracy is into subsidies for wealthy people and multi-national corporations, because they provide all the jobs for the rest of you. Or I'm sure they will start to provide you some jobs now that they've gotten me mine. 

  Taking tax money from billionaires for any national public purpose is very, very wrong and should be avoided at all costs. We call that redistributing wealth. Taking your tax money and directing it to billionaires gives you much more bang for the buck. We call that taking back our country! It is not redistributing wealth because, seriously, on your paycheck, that is not really “wealth.” The more tax cuts we can give to the top, oh, let’s say one percent, the more opportunity your children will have in the future as chauffeurs and landscape maintenance personnel. If you don’t understand this distinction now, believe me, now that my friends and I have our blessed mandate, you soon will.

So, not for myself but for you and your children and their futures as American bodyguards and personal assistants and housekeepers (rich people have lots of houses, jobs, jobs, jobs!), I am categorically rejecting a generous, well-organized, efficiently run health insurance plan with hundreds of thousands of satisfied users and a number of different public options. So help me God I pledge to do my utmost to make sure none of you will ever have one, either.”