Craziest Republican of the Day: Bill Posey

By Michael J.W. Stickings

This is more stupid than crazy:

ThinkProgress recently spoke with [Rep. Bill] Posey [R-FL], who gained notoriety in 2009 for sponsoring the original "birther bill" in Congress. We asked the congressmen if he plans to turn down government-subsidized health insurance for himself in light of his push to repeal health care reform. His response: "I don't know. Am I a federal employee?"...

ThinkProgress followed up with Rep. Posey's press secretary George Cecala. Mr. Cecala confirmed for us that Congressman Posey is, indeed, a federal employee. In addition, despite Posey's attempts to evade the question, Mr. Cecala told us that the Florida Republican does accept government-subsidized and managed health care and has done so for his entire congressional career. When asked how the congressman would respond to the hypocrisy angle, Mr. Cecala told us "you can't just single out members of Congress and then just ignore other federal employees who receive the same benefits."

What does that have to do with it? The issue isn't that federal employees (including those in Congress) receive such benefits but that Republicans like Posey, along with a few Democrats, oppose the Affordable Care Act and are thus trying to deny adequate health insurance to tens of millions of Americans.

Posey is just one of many, many (if not all) Republicans on Capitol Hill who either deny that they receive government health care (that they'd never want to give up) or prefer to evade the issue altogether lest their utter hypocrisy be exposed.

It's hard to believe he doesn't know if he's a federal employee, but he's certainly got a massive sense of self-righteous entitlement, while basically telling tens of millions of Americans, those without his privileges, that they can go to hell.