Republican incumbent Todd Akin [D-MO] shared 30 minutes of his time with host Don Marsh and listeners of St. Louis Public Radio\u2019s \u201cSt. Louis on the Air\u201d on Monday, Oct. 4. I\u2019m glad he was on the show, because it\u2019s important that people actually hear what he says, and the \u201clogic\u201d behind his ideas. Many of his statements were the expected Republican boilerplate. But some of what he said was disturbingly illogical and extreme, but perhaps not as extreme as some of the ideas he expresses on his website<\/a>, particularly his website pronouncements about the role of prayer in making our country better. I wonder if his constituents are fully aware of these views. If they aren’t, and if we all aren’t, we need to pay better attention. The lack of compassion is astonishing, particularly in the notion that charity is the way to solve the problem of uninsured Americans. [The excerpts are nearly verbatim from the radio interview.]<\/p>\n

Driving with my windows open on a beautiful fall day, I\u2019m sure that I startled several other drivers with my shrieks when I heard him say\u2026<\/p>\n

On Washington, DC…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026[That I\u2019m]\u2026happy to be out of Washington is always a safe assumption.\u201d [Author\u2019s comment: Larry from South St. Louis, whoever you are, thank you for calling in and reminding Congressman Akin that he has a job to do in Washington that we pay him for.]<\/p>\n

On healthcare reform…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026In the last election the Democrats took an overwhelming majority of everything, so there\u2019s not the normal buffering that goes on.\u201d [Author\u2019s comment: The party of no made sure that \u201cbuffering\u201d actually did take place.]<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Because the Democrats had a wide open playing field, they did what they wanted to do\u2026You see extreme practices coming from the Democrat side\u2026The idea of the Federal Government running health care. That\u2019s a pretty extreme policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026If Medicare and Medicaid are broken are we gonna turn the rest of health care over to the government?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Republicans believe that the private system is better. There certain have to be patches and fixes…. We passed a number of proposals to improve health care when we had the majority\u2026Don\u2019t scrap the whole thing and give it to the government to run.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c..If you\u2019re just a responsible guy\u2026you\u2019re a good citizen<\/em> [author\u2019s emphasis] and bought health insurance, and then you become uninsurable because someone in your family gets a pre-existing condition\u2014in a few years you\u2019re bankrupt\u2026The best way to approach is to prevent more people from falling into that trap of not being insured.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Charity: that\u2019s the way they were always paid for in the past. The big tycoons originally built the hospitals. There\u2019s still a lot of charity, but it\u2019s being laundered through the government\u2026The most efficient way to cover poverty is by charity. The government [can\u2019t] step in to take care of people\u2019s food, shelter, education and health care. Across the ocean, the government tried it and the Soviet Union eventually collapsed. We can\u2019t afford that. You can\u2019t cheat mathematics\u2026 The government can\u2019t provide perfect healthcare for everyone and housing and food and provide for the national defense. [We need to think about] what government should do, and what should go back to the states and local.\u201d<\/p>\n

On President Obama…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026I think [describing President Obama] as a socialist is a bland description. Obama said he was a socialist when he talked to Joe the Plumber. He said that it\u2019s the federal government\u2019s job to redistribute wealth\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

On Social Security and on paying for health care via charity…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Politically, I think Social Security will be given more to the people who are more needy. And people who have others forms of security won\u2019t get it. I don\u2019t like it<\/em>…I would prefer that we allow incentives for people to save on their own. At a minimum, if you have Social Security, let the money that people put in, let that be indexed to those people, so they own some of what they\u2019re investing.\u00a0 As opposed to giving it irresponsibly to government and they spend it all and then spend ourselves into a box like we\u2019re doing now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026if you\u2019re relying on [Social Security] alone for your retirement, that\u2019s pretty tough. Certainly, investments are risky, especially when Wash DC is asleep at the switch\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c… If people get back in healthcare to where people are in buying other kinds of commodities\u2026Say you\u2019re going to buy and boat or car, you price shop and look at your income and your budget and you come up with a process where you work out a formula for where you are and what your income is, and what\u2019s the best deal. In the insurance business, we\u2019ve made it so there isn\u2019t a bargain. You\u2019re covered, so you say, I want the fanciest thing I can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 I wouldn\u2019t rely on charity. I\u2019d save my money and buy health insurance. People have to be responsible. If we don\u2019t take responsibility for the decisions we make, we have a country that doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026What must the federal government do, and what are niceties we wish they would do? Medicare and Medicaid are a socialist kind of approach. It wasn\u2019t done that way a long time ago. Charity was a big part of it. Charity built hospitals and libraries…Should the government mandate it, I\u2019m uncomfortable with that, because then the government will dictate what the product is, and that takes out the variability that you have in a market system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican incumbent Todd Akin [D-MO] shared 30 minutes of his time with host Don Marsh and listeners of St. Louis Public Radio\u2019s \u201cSt. Louis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,29,119,16],"tags":[2494,1689],"yoast_head":"\n