Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, ruffled a few feathers at Friday’s U.S. House Rules Committee meeting, comparing female-related health conditions to restrictions put on smokers by insurance companies.
When asked why women should pay more than men for health care, Sessions stumbled into a poor analogy, after which he was quickly interrupted.
‘Well, we’re all different ‘hellip; why should a smoker pay more?’ Sessions asked, baffling the minds of everyone listening – everyone with a brain, at least.
Democrats say that this, along with everything else the GOP is saying concerning health care for women, proves many House Republicans’ lack of concern for working-class women.
‘The NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee, of which Sessions is the chairman) and extreme right wing of the Republican Party (are) totally out of step with women,’ spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Jennifer Crider said in an article on Politico.com. ‘First, the NRCC says that a man ought to put the first woman speaker of the house ‘in her place.’ ‘hellip; I don’t know what’s scarier, whether NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions actually believes women are second class citizens or whether he believes it’s politically beneficial for the NRCC to say so.’
It seems that Sessions is under the impression that people choose their gender when they are born – perhaps on the inside of the womb, there is a button for unborn babies to push, which reads, ‘Male or Female’ – so women, having chosen their gender, should pay more for insurance, give birth to babies, put up with menstrual cycles and, of course, cook and clean for their brothers, husbands and fathers.
Really?
For all the mistakes made by the Republicans in this instance, the Democrats are at fault too; they should grow a pair of cojones, use their majority and force this legislation through. Republicans might be ignorant to the needs of their constituents, but the Democrats need a unified ‘No’ attitude toward Sessions and his terrible analogies.
Women deserve health care too.
