So the sabotage of health care is in full swing and out in the open. And the motive is the scariest thing 1/ https://t.co/hH0Ehi0BTb— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 13, 2017
Under cover of darkness last night, after he signed his executive order gutting the Affordable Care Act, the moral monstrosity that "pro-life" white Christians put into the White House then turned the switch on billions of dollars subsidizing the healthcare coverage of the poorest citizens in the country — who had just gotten healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Here's Paul Krugman commenting in a Twitter thread about this act of cruel savagery:
This is obviously not about any kind of policy strategy, or even about a coherent political strategy. It's sheer spite on Trump's part 2/— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 13, 2017
He's an utter failure as president, and he clearly knows it, so he's lashing out and breaking things just because he can 3/— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 13, 2017
Today he's blowing up Obamacare. Tomorrow, maybe, the world. 4/— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 13, 2017
And as Jonathan Payne tweets in response to Krugman,
Memorize the faces of the smiling scum surrounding the filth in chief: pic.twitter.com/ZwAFNc4k3A— Jonathan Payne (@_jpayne_) October 13, 2017
One of those laughing and applauding the moral monstrosity's decision to attack the vulnerable was — I repeat — North Carolina Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, who is standing next to the moral monstrosity and is wearing an aqua blue jacket in the photos above. Virginia Foxx is Catholic, and an outspoken defender of pro-life values.
Catholic magisterial teaching — pro-life teaching — states that healthcare is a human right, not a privilege: Pope John XXIII began his encyclical Pacem in Terris by listing human rights that, as he notes, pertain to the right to life: these include "food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest and finally the necessary social services" (Pacem in Terris, ❡11).
In his encyclical Centesimus Annus surveying the rights of workers, Pope John Paul II lists the right to healthcare coverage alongside the right to social security, pensions, and compensation when one is injured while working (Centesiumus Annus, ❡15).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
Concern for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living-conditions that allow them to grow and reach maturity: food and clothing, housing, health care, basic education, employment, and social assistance (❡2288).
On 14 August, in a sworn deposition, Virginia Foxx's bishop, Bishop Peter Jugis of the Charlotte diocese, stated that Catholics who give public "scandal" by publicly defying Catholic teaching must be rebuked publicly by their bishop (and, in the case of gay employees of Catholic institutions, fired) — because, if the bishop does not publicly rebuke public statements of disagreement with official Catholic teaching by Catholics making those statements in public, people may be led astray, causing "scandal." Bishop Jugis' desposition defines scandal as a situation
where some behavior or action which is wrong offends an innocent person such that they would be led astray into thinking, if there was no response from some person in authority, that this activity was acceptable.
I am deeply offended by Congresswoman Foxx's jubilation at the eminently anti-life action of removing healthcare coverage from millions of people on the margins of society. I am also deeply offended by her vote within hours following the executive attack on healthare coverage for those on the margins of society against aid for the people of Puerto Rico, who are in dire need of food, potable water, electricity, shelter, and many other basic necessities to keep themselves alive following a horrendous disaster.
Neither of these actions in any shape, form, or fashion supports Catholic pro-life teaching.
Will Bishop Jugis speak out about how Ms. Foxx is representing Catholic teaching and values in the public square, lest people be scandalized by her actions, and lest silence on the part of the bishop of her diocese lead us to think her behavior is acceptable?
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