Press Room Stunned and Silent as Ted Cruz Related Heroin Addiction of his Half-Sister

[NightHawkeye]

‘Wow’: Ted Cruz Delivers Answer on Heroin Epidemic So Powerful That Media Center Falls ‘Silent’ | The Blaze

From The Washington Post's Robert Costa:

Media filing center is silent as Cruz tells story.​

National Review's Rich Lowry:

Great, great answer from Cruz. Wow​

NBC's Luke Russert:

Cruz answer re opiates with emotional recount of his half-sister's death due to drug addiction very strong. Shows a human side.​

 

[Vylo]

Maybe if we stopped the war on drugs and focused on education and rehabilitation, his half-sister would be alive today. Sad story.

 

[brinny]

Wow, powerful.

 

[cow451]

Cruz to Trump: My sister's heroin addiction tops your brother's alcoholism.

 

[fargonic]

I always find it fascinating that someone could see, first hand, such horrors and still fight so hard against using the power of our country to help its most at-risk and underserved people. Why he would fight so hard against the only meaningful "fix" to a clearly broken and inequitable healthcare system or fight against using the power of all of us to address poverty and want is still a mystery to me.

I feel for him and this tragedy, but it would show wisdom if he were to leverage that to change the tone of his candidacy.

The tone we get from the GOP is always one of personal responsibility uber alles. One must take responsibility for all the bad that happens to them. But in reality we are better people if we accept that we are all prone to falling. That we are all likely to make bad decisions.

That should be the essence of his Christian messages that he belabors so much.

 

[NightHawkeye]

The tone we get from the GOP is always one of personal responsibility uber alles. One must take responsibility for all the bad that happens to them. But in reality we are better people if we accept that we are all prone to falling. That we are all likely to make bad decisions.

That should be the essence of his Christian messages that he belabors so much.

Noting that Ted Cruz did take personal responsibility for helping in the wake of his sister's failings. He took out a large personal loan to send her son to school so that the boy would have opportunities for improving his life otherwise unavailable to him.

 

[Albion]

Wow, powerful.

Yes, I thought that was a powerful and moving moment and was impressed that the audience felt the same way about it.

 

[fargonic]

Noting that Ted Cruz did take personal responsibility for helping in the wake of his sister's failings. He took out a large personal loan to send her son to school so that the boy would have opportunities for improving his life otherwise unavailable to him.

But he actively campaigns now to put millions back out of affordable healthcare.

I guess in his world if you can take out a $20,000 loan on a credit card that's what everyone can do.

 

[fargonic]

Wow, powerful.

You know what would make a powerful moment more powerful? If he wasn't actively working to force millions off the health insurance rolls.

Don't get me wrong, I actually do feel for Ted and his family. But I don't sense that Ted has gained any wisdom by seeing the plight of his half-sister to help him understand that not everyone is blessed with perfected actions like himself.

 

[fargonic]

Yes, I thought that was a powerful and moving moment and was impressed that the audience felt the same way about it.

The important thing is that the audience was similarly impressed. That will come in handy when Ted resumes his non-stop attempts to ensure millions of people are thrust back into poverty and ill health when they are booted from the health insurance rolls when he repeals Obamacare.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

The important thing is that the audience was similarly impressed. That will come in handy when Ted resumes his non-stop attempts to ensure millions of people are thrust back into poverty and ill health when they are booted from the health insurance rolls when he repeals Obamacare.

You really seem to be dialed in on this healthcare aspect of it...

It's important to note, that just because someone opposes the ACA, doesn't mean that they, by default, must want people to be uninsured or not get healthcare. To imply that, is to imply that state run healthcare is literally the only option (which it isn't).

I, for example, am not a fan of the ACA, or what it entails, and there there are smarter changes that could be made...that doesn't mean that "I want poor people to not be able to get healthcare"

...I think there are other provisions that could be made that would drive down a lot of healthcare costs for everyone that make more sense than sweeping "dive in the deep end" legislation.


Now, i'm not saying this because I'm a "Cruz fan"...I'm not, and have no intention of voting for him if he gets the nod. I'm simply saying this because it gets a bit repetitive and laborious to keep hearing these assertions that "If you oppose the ACA, that means you want poor people to die, sick, in the streets"

 

[NightHawkeye]

But he actively campaigns now to put millions back out of affordable healthcare.

He actively campaigns to make healthcare affordable again. Big difference.

 

[Albion]

But he actively campaigns now to put millions back out of affordable healthcare.

No, he doesn't; and I wish you'd get the message that we didn't buy this claim the first time it was made, so we're not likely to fall for it later on.

 

[Albion]

The important thing is that the audience was similarly impressed.

Sure. There are more of them than there are of me. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[brinny]

Yes, I thought that was a powerful and moving moment and was impressed that the audience felt the same way about it.

yes, it was powerful and had me stunned as well.

He was giving a testimony and when a testimony is from the heart, it is powerful.

 

[fargonic]

No, he doesn't; and I wish you'd get the message that we didn't buy this claim the first time it was made, so we're not likely to fall for it later on.

So Ted Cruz has a workable plan to put in place immediately after he repeals Obamacare? And it won't have any difficulties getting enacted?

Excellent! He should tell the GOP folks in charge because last I heard they only had some vague and poorly outlined plans.

The one thing we DO know is: immediately after the repeal of Obamacare millions will be put off the insurance rolls.

ERGO: His plan will put millions off the insurance rolls.

A lot of our Right Wing friends forget that some of us remember life before 2009.

 

[fargonic]

yes, it was powerful and had me stunned as well.

He was giving a testimony and when a testimony is from the heart, it is powerful.

Well let's hope he uses that powerful experience to HELP more people. He could start with not threatening the healthcare of millions of Americans who only recently got coverage!

THAT would be powerful.

 

[Albion]

So Ted Cruz has a workable plan to put in place immediately after he repeals Obamacare? And it won't have any difficulties getting enacted?

I'm somewhat pleased and actually surprised to have you backtrack on your erroneous claim. Don't compromise that now by trying to nitpick the facts to death a little at a time.

Excellent! He should tell the GOP folks in charge because last I heard they only had some vague and poorly outlined plans.

I'd have to say that this is YOUR problem. I didn't have any difficulty in ascertaining what his position is.

 

[stamperben]

I'd have to say that this is YOUR problem. I didn't have any difficulty in ascertaining what his position is.

Keep going... We're listening...

 

[fargonic]

I'm somewhat pleased and actually surprised to have you backtrack on your erroneous claim.

I didn't backtrack. Ted has been openly focused on repealing Obamacare.

I'd have to say that this is YOUR problem. I didn't have any difficulty in ascertaining what his position is.

Perhaps I stated that maladroitly. Perhaps Ted can explain to everyone how his cross-state-borders part of the plan will work out for large, sparsely populated states with lower levels of "broad spectrum healthcare access". For instance if you get plan that covers certain treatments but the hospitals in your state do not have an economic incentive to purchase the equipment (because there are too few people to pay off the costs). This is part of the pricing differential between states.

Would Cruz allow for the expansion of HSA's to be open to people who are NOT in high deductible plans?

And as for Cruz's delinking of healthcare plans from the employer, I'm ok with that. IF Cruz would then help maintain the bargaining advantage that large corporations have with health insurance companies. In other words...sounds like government mandate to control costs! Otherwise individuals would have a tougher time negotiating healthcare costs.

I guess, in the end, The Cruz Plan would have to "prove itself out", which, I guess, means there will be a block of time in which Cruz has repealed Obamacare knocking millions immediately off the healthcare insurance rolls while he irons out his new plan.

But so long as you and I aren't among those who get knocked off the insurance rolls, who cares, amirite? I mean, wink wink, I got mine. I assume you got yours.

Funny thing is: the Right essentially invented Obamacare (back in the 90s the Heritage Foundation grudgingly acquiesced the among the only way to maintain a stable risk pool for a for-profit insurance company was the "Individual Mandate", Romney figured this out when he created Romneycare in Mass. And of course Obama just utilized the Romneycare type structure...even using many of the same economists that Romney used).

The only REAL alternative to Obamacare is Single Payer, but even when Obama gave the keys to the Corporate Loving GOP and kept profit in the equation, the GOP found a way to complain and even, in some states, Republican Governors actively harmed their own constituents by denying Medicaid expansion. Just to make a political point.

It's never been about improving healthcare. It's ALWAYS been about defeating Obama.

If it requires hurting millions of Americans to do so, then at all costs.

So, we all know what Teddy's REAL goal is. Overturn Obamacare, and "hope" that Cruz-Care actually works, which we have no idea about.