Strikingly, the audience cheers came just hours before the release Tuesday morning of new Census Bureau data showing the number of uninsured Americans this year rising by another 900,000 to 49.9 million people. Concurrently the Census Bureau reported a huge leap in the poverty rate, one reason so many people are without health coverage as insurance premiums alone have doubled in nine years.
A little context for the cheering at last night’s Republican/Teabagger debate. Ron Paul was asked whether a hypothetical uninsured patient should get medical care or just be left to die. Members of the audience broke into cheers, applause and shouts of “Yeah!”
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