Bank Bondholder Bitches Barack Obama and Taoiseach Brian Cowen share a laugh as they taunt cancer victims at a recent photo-op.
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By Dr. Pitchfork
Still don't think the bank bailouts are evil, misguided and stupid? In Ireland, even cancer patients and amputees take a back seat to bank bondholders.
A County Wicklow woman faces weeks of delay for cancer treatment because of serious budget cuts at the Irish health service. Although her gum disease is unrelated to her cancer, her dentist says her condition should be taken care of before she gets treatment for her cancer. Otherwise, he says, she risks losing part of her jaw bone, leaving her with a painful and permanent disfigurement. But however much she needs the treatment, because of bailout-induced budget cuts, she waits and waits and waits while the health service decides whether to approve or deny her request.
Serving as a cautionary tale in the age of Obamacare and bank bailouts, Ireland's health service, the HSE, says that it is capping dental spending this year at 63 million Euro. Want a cavity filled? Ask your dentist to send in a request. He will likely wait up to 4 weeks for a reply and the answer is likely to be "No." Got cancer? Well, tough titty, sweet kitty -- the bank bondholders need their money and your government health service budget has been cut accordingly.
Make no mistake. The Irish situation puts the bank bailouts into their proper perspective. Money dropped down the bad debt/bank bondholder black hole isn't just a bunch of numbers rounding out an accounting entry -- it means billions upon billions of dollars that cannot be spent on things people desparately need.
Ironically, Ireland's own Tim Geithner, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, suffers from pancreatic cancer. We wish him and his family all the best, but the bondholder bailouts he stupidly and cluelessly defends mean that ordinary Irish people -- like the woman from County Wicklow -- must wait weeks, months, or indefinitely for the kind of treatment that elites like Lenihan receive as a matter of course.
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Dr. Pitchfork is Ivy educated, has 2 advanced degrees, is completing a PhD, and has a keen taste for rebellion, revolution, truth and occasionally some tea. He recently returned from a family trip to Ireland, where he became intimate with the Irish medical system.
Previously from Dr. Pitchfork: