The Akin Doctrine

Todd and Cynthia share a laugh about the joys of hunger.

I'm still really confused about Todd Akin's speech last Wednesday blasting the idea that everyone should have basic food and shelter as some sort of "commie" pipe dream. 

First, I have no idea why he thinks helping people not starve or freeze to death is some sort of communist folly -- I'm no historian or theologian, but am reasonably confident that the concepts of aiding the hungry and poor predate the USSR by quite a few years. Furthermore, I am completely dumbfounded about why Akin thinks that his argument will persuade the majority of Americans who like a public insurance option to stop supporting this decidedly American idea. 

Here is a partial transcript of Akin's speech:

Another phrase that sounds just wonderful, that is:  "Every American has a right to health care."  Hmm. That's an interesting phrase.

Let's think about that a little bit. There was once a country that doesn't exist right now that had the idea that everybody had a right to certain basic things. For instance, if it gets really cold outside, you should have a right to housing because if you don't have a warm place to live, so you'll freeze to death. So they said everybody should have a right to housing.

And if you don't have food to eat, you'll starve to death. So everybody should have a right to food.

And everybody should have a right to education - you should be able to read.

And so in each of these cases, the government was going to provide housing, and food, and education -- the government said that also you need to have a right to have a job. And so, the government was going to provide the job. And the government, of course, said you had a right to health care. And so the government was going to provide your health care.

And um, this idea, that because it's essential for your survival to have housing, or food,  or education or a job or health care, uh, to say then or to assume that it's a right is to make the same assumption that was made by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 

We used to call 'em "commies" when I was younger.

And how well did their system work?  It didn't work very well.  Lots of people got lousy health care, starved to death, froze to death and were persecuted and killed by their government because they had an assumption that you had a right to all these different things.

But I think that, uh, when our founders started America they talked about a right to something else. A right to life, a right to liberty and a right to pursue happiness.

What's the difference between those things?

Well, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is something that is granted by God to each and every individual citizen. Nobody else gives you that. Only God himself.

When you talk about a right to food, does that mean that the farmer has to be your slave and give you food which is the product of the sweat of his brow? I don't think so. We call that stealing.

And so we need to be a little careful when we talk about rights a little bit too quickly because when you assume you have a right, then it's the government's job to enforce it and pretty soon you end up with public options or essentially one choice and that is the government running everything.

Part of this text comes from Media Matters, the rest is my transcription -- watch it yourself:

It's probably a foolish exercise, but I've tried to distill Akin's speech down to its core arguments. Here goes:

• The idea that everyone should have access to affordable health care is very similar to the idea that everyone should have enough food and shelter that they don't starve or freeze to death.
• The USSR -- "we used to call 'em "commies'" -- stated that their citizens had a "right" to food, shelter, education, a job, and health care.
• Despite these commitments, people froze to death and were killed in gulags.
• We live the United States of America, and we aren't like the Commies.
• The American Declaration of Independence included the phrase, "All men...are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
• Because that list did not include food, shelter, the ability to read, a job or health care, those basic needs are not the responsibility of an American government.
• If our society did agree that no one should starve to death, we would be required to turn farmers into "slaves" and "steal" his crops and livestock.
• If our society did decide that everyone should be able to go to school, have a place to not freeze to death, not starve, have access to affordable health care or try to create jobs, "pretty soon" we'd end up with a totalitarian state, like the USSR.
• We live the United States of America, and we aren't like the Commies.

This is obviously a radical ideology for governing.  No emergency shelters (sorry everyone in Southeast Missouri!).  No public schools (the Commies tried to teach their kids to read too -- and look how many people died!). No requirements for emergency room care.  And, of course, no public insurance option, even though most Americans want one.

And, as Media Matters points out, Akin's comments completely contradict the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the US helped frame in 1945.  I know that sounds like a One World Government and all, but from where I sit, we should be doing more to help the people who lack adequate nutrition, shelter, employment, access to affordable health care and quality educations. That's not communism -- it's just thinking that there's an actual role for a government safety net, public schools and health care programs.

If Akin is ready to put his money where his mouth is, he should introduce legislation* to eliminate or prohibit public funding for public schools, Medicare, FEMA, homeless shelters, food programs, Medicaid, etc.  Until then, he should probably just stop talking -- it would be best for everyone.

h/t Media Matters

*Akin has actually sponsored four bills this session -- three of them are to rename post offices, and the fourth concerns requirements for providing contraception to minors at (gasp!) federally-funded clinics.

** It should be noted that some folks actually think Todd Akin isn't conservative/reactionary/insane enough to continue representing his constituents in Congress.