John Boehner tries for some cheap easy political points
I point to this bit of Political Pandering on the part of House Minority Leader John Boehner, an easy picking I gather, but ultimately a weirdly meaningless “Get Tough” messaging for cheap, easy points.
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KING: We’re back with the House Republican leader, John Boehner. I want to spend some time on politics, but a couple quick questions first. The administration announced Friday night that it is going to make the H1N1 vaccine available to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay terror detention facility. There are shortages here in the United States for families who are trying to get them. I wonder if you think that’s a good idea.
BOEHNER: I don’t think it’s a good idea. The administration probably didn’t think it would be very popular either, that’s why they announced it on Friday night. We have prisoners in my own home county who are going to get H1N1 shots while there are vulnerable populations who want the shots who can’t get them. I just think that’s wrong.
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Bleh.
A spokesman for Physicians For Human Rights, an international medical group, said there are “certain basic obligations the U.S. has to its prisoners,” and that vaccinations for influenza fall into that category.
“The fact that many prisoners within the U.S. don’t get timely access to basic health care doesn’t change the obligation of the U.S. to prisoners at Guantanamo,” Dr. Scott A. Allen of the rights group said in an e-mail from Rhode Island. “We should work towards securing H1N1 vaccine for all at-risk populations, and not towards lowering a public health standard for certain unpopular groups.”