Obamacare-hatin' Sheriff Richard Mack called into the Thom Hartmann Program , and while the Sheriff's cardiovascular system is still recovering from a heart attack, his balls still appear to be plump, healthy, and clad in the highest-quality brass. Mack insists that he don't need no handouts, and also thank you for all the handouts, please keep 'em comin'.
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Let's get to the blockquotes, shall we?
Hartmann: ...you refuse to get health insurance because it was called Obamacare? Do I have that right?
Mack: Well, I don't care what you call it, it's a socialistic program that I totally disagreed with and still do, and as a free American — I think you and I specifically mentioned this — if I had the right to choose for myself, then it would be different. But government forcing me and forcing the rest of the country to compassionate —— compassion and charity does [sic] not come at the end of a gun from the IRS.
Mack appears to remain blissfully unaware that he does have the right to choose for himself, and that he exercised that right, and that's precisely why he couldn't pay his own medical bills in the first place.
Sheriff Mack is correct, however, in saying that compassion and charity do not come from the end of a gun. Compassion and charity obviously come from Yr Wonket, who sent thousands of people who have never met Mack's sorry, handout-takin' ass to bail him out. You're welcome, asshole.
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This interview is nine minutes of the most proudly ignorant cognitive dissonance you will hear this week, and we suggest you listen to the whole thing for yourself. However, if you're not a masochist, we have transcribed some of our favorite parts of Mack's interview, because Jesus, this fuckin' guy...
In fact, I absolutely agree and believe that soon we will be not just fined — like the IRS is going to fine us, without due process, I might add, because you don't get a hearing, you don't get to go to trial, and only a judge and jury or trial or hearing can fine a possible suspect in anything — but this is just the government takin' your money because you have not subjected yourself, you have not submitted to this higher authority that believes in taking care of us and that they have the authority to force us to let them take care of us. I don't buy into any of that.
Almost nothing in this hideous run-on of a sentence is factually correct. Mack is free to "believe" anything he wants, but the IRS abides by clearly promulgated rules when it comes to collecting unpaid taxes, and Section 1501 of the Affordable Care Act explicitly states that deadbeats like Mack "shall not be subject to any criminal prosecution or penalty with respect to such failure [to get covered or pay the corresponding fines]."
As for the notion that the federal government has no requirement to "take care of us," Yr Wonket would direct Sheriff Mack's attention to the "general welfare" portion of the Tax and Spending Clause of the Constitution. It is Section I, Article 8 of the Constitution, but we are sure we don't need to remind Sheriff Mack of that since he's an Oath Keeper and the founder of an organization called the Constitutional Sheriffs and Police Officers of America .
And hey, look at that, Mack's Constitutional Sheriffs site includes a page titled "Help Sheriff Mack," complete with a donate button and a link to his GoFundMe page! Maybe he's coming around a bit, what do you think, guys?
Yes, we have some serious medical problems, and no, I did not go begging on the streets or on GoFundMe or anyplace else.
But some friends of mine who saw how our situation was started this program, started this GoFundMe thing, and I was grateful but I was also a little bit embarrassed, taken aback by the whole thing.
Yr Wonket has a solution to Sheriff Mack's embarassment: give us our money back! GoFundMe has a whole FAQ about how you can issue refunds , fuckface. We would tell you to put your money where your mouth is, but this is actually a case of you putting other people's money where your mouth is. Y'know, because you're a deadbeat.
I don't like being in this position...
Then buy some health insurance, you freeloading motherfucker. Exercise your personal freedom to not be a burden on society, you big, tough, rugged hunk o' Constitution-protectin' man.
...but I guarantee ya that we will survive, and we'll get our own bills paid for.
You can't make that guarantee, Sheriff. If you could, we wouldn't have written about you in the first place. We all die alone, Sheriff Mack, some of us lonelier than others. And some of us with much larger outstanding medical bills.
As the interview winds to a close, Sheriff Mack sounds a clarion call for self-reliance.
Any of the liberals want to still help out, go to GoFundMe.com/HelpSheriffMack.
We have been writing for Yr Wonket for over a year now, and before that, we fielded some really interesting constituent phone calls as a staffer in a state legislature. We can confidently say that we have never in our time on this planet encountered someone so proud of his own ignorance as former Graham County Sheriff Richard Mack. He's a national treasure, and we hope future generations will study him and his tiny, tiny brain.
Mack's GoFundMe page has exceeded its goal, in no small part because progressive scum like you gave money to him. We have sent a message to the page's administrator to ask if we should all expect refunds, since Sheriff Mack is not a beggar and all. We will let you know how that goes.
Well, progressive scum like me won't make that mistake again. No more handouts from me that are not a handout to the begging non-beggar!
I like you Wonkette, but when you were sending people to give money to pay this asshole's medical bills, I did not like that. I know you were trying to show how liberals aren't like selfish right-wingers, but fuck him. He wouldn't lift a finger to help someone in need, let him lose his fucking doublewide trailer or whatever shithole he lives in because he was too selfish and stupid to get medical insurance.