Another day, another head-shaking addition to the Trump administration. This time around it's the orange one's pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Rep. Tom Price, a physician and ardent Obamacare foe. And people are already singing his...what's the opposite of praises?
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) compared Price as the new HHS secretary to "asking the fox to guard the henhouse"; Planned Parenthood warned that he could "take women back decades"; and GLAAD says he's "completely unfit" for the job--which is apparently the one qualification to make Trump's team. Though, being white and/or pure evil doesn't hurt, either.
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So why is Price so bad? Well, he supported legislation to bar federal funds for Planned Parenthood; called the Supreme Court's ruling on national marriage equality "not only a sad day for marriage, but a further judicial destruction of our entire system of checks and balances"; referred to the Obama administration's guidelines protecting trans students hoping to use the bathroom in peace as "absurd"; co-signed a suspended police chief who referred to homosexuality as a "sexual perversion"; and then there's the comments he made regarding the potential economic impact of gay rights bills:
He went on to say he was dismayed by "people who wake up one morning and think that they've got a grand new way of doing something" that ends up becoming "a huge cost-driver to state pensions" and have significant health costs.
Speaking of people who wake up one morning and think that they have a grand new way of doing something, Price wants to completely abolish Obamacare. But unlike other members of the GOP, he actually has a plan to replace it that's not a direct rip-off of the Affordable Care Act. Since 2009 Price has been rearing to go with his alternative to Obamacare, which he claims interferes with the ability of patients and doctors to make medical decisions.
And if anyone's going to interfere with the ability to make medical decisions--especially if those decisions should be made by a woman and really no one else--it's going to be Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services.
