Rep. Joe Heck thinks criticism of his position on a mandate that employers provide birth control to employees — including religious employers who object to the practice — is overwrought.
“That’s what Democrats always do,” he told the Review-Journal last week. “Everything is an attack on seniors, children and women’s health. That’s their standard talking point no matter what Republicans try to do. The fact is this has nothing to do with women’s health issues.”
The provision of contraception has nothing to do with women’s health issues? Really?
Perhaps Heck is a little sore because he’s personally been on the receiving end of criticism about his record on women’s health. In the Nevada Legislature, Heck voted against requiring insurance companies to cover a vaccine used to prevent HPV, the human papillomavirus, which can lead to cervical cancer.
When I asked Heck directly during the 2007 Legislature why he, a physician, would vote against a vaccine that prevents an infection that can lead to cancer, he told me simply, “because it’s a mandate.” And when I replied by saying, “So what?” Heck (after a second or two; apparently he’d never been asked that before) told me that mandates drive up costs of insurance for everybody.
I wonder, which costs more: The HPV vaccine, or treatment for cervical cancer? And what drives up costs more, a vaccine given to prevent a disease, or the expensive treatment for those who get the disease?
Heck has also been slammed for repeatedly calling Social Security a “pyramid scheme,” words that tend to scare seniors and soon-to-retire folks who are counting on getting their Social Security benefits. And while Heck assures seniors he would not change the program for current retirees, calling it a “pyramid scheme” doesn’t evidence much faith in what’s manifestly one of the most successful social programs of all time.
Finally, Heck could be on edge because of his support for the Rep. Paul Ryan budget, which called for transforming Medicare as we know it into a voucher-style program that would increase costs for seniors. Voting to support that budget might get him accused of threatening seniors?
So perhaps Democrats don’t always say that Republicans are insensitive to women’s health or antagonistic toward programs that help seniors and poor children. Perhaps they’re just saying that in reaction to things that Heck personally has said? Just a thought.
= new reply since forum marked as read
perfect look for a complete imbecile peddling bullshit 
