Right-Wing Wingnuts and "Tort Reform"

What do you call someone who is anti-family, supports burdening taxpayers with more government spending, backs those who won’t take personal responsibility for their actions, and opposes states rights?  No, this isn’t Sarah Palin trying to offend liberals.  This is crazy right-wingers, like Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), describing, well, himself.  Like every other right-wing member of Congress these days, Issa’s main health insurance reform “idea” seems to be weakening liability for reckless health care providers, forcing innocent families and/or taxpayers to pick up the tab, and harassing President Obama for not agreeing with him.  Let’s add one more descriptive term to the list: hypocrite.  (Actually, nothing new here, here.)

So-called “tort reform” is nothing if not a violation of the most fundamental of conservative principles.  For example:

·      Personal responsibility: “Tort reform” relieves corporations and other wrongdoers of responsibility for their misconduct.

·      Lower taxes and less government spending: “Tort reform” shifts the cost of compensating injured citizens from wrongdoers to taxpayer-funded health and disability programs.

·      Family Values/Protection of Children: “Tort reform” can be catastrophic for many children and their families, causing untold suffering, economic devastation, and for some, the destruction of family life.

·      Less government regulation:  “Tort reform” regulates what is essentially a free-market approach to holding corporations and other wrongdoers accountable for injuring or killing people.

·      States Rights: There could be no greater intrusion on traditional state authority than federal tort reforms that tie the hands of local judges and juries.

As for health insurance reform, the right-wing nuts will throw their most basic principles out the window in order to protect reckless and incompetent doctors and dangerous hospitals.  Actually, Sarah Palin fits right in, you betcha. 

UPDATE:  From the February 8 New York Times: "Republicans also contend that changes in state medical malpractice laws could lower costs and slow the growth of premiums. However, some of these proposals — like federal limits on damages for pain and suffering and punitive damages — are potentially in conflict with the Republicans’ emphasis on federalism and state autonomy."

Comments

[Robert L Abell]

This is an excellent illustration of how tort reform is a vehicle for some to avoid responsibility, liability and accountability for their wrongdoing, while shifting its costs to others -- the rest of us.