This piece was posted yesterday. Unfortunately, due to server problems two posts on In All Things were lost. We are reposting the original content, in its entirety, below.

On July 10, Matt Miller, an opinion writer for the Washington Post and a public radio co-host, distilled the G.O.P.’s message to the uninsured of this country in two words: Drop dead.

His point gained credibility the very next day when the U. S. House of Representatives voted to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act. The repeal was a piece of political theater, of course, with no hope of passage in the Senate.

A real repeal, by contrast, would have serious consequences. It would, for example, eliminate the very law that will soon extend health insurance to some 30 million uninsured Americans. No one should lose sight of that central fact or this one: No Republican has offered a replacement of equal worth to the uninsured either.

Then Matt Miller gave the president the following bit of strategic advice

In the debates this fall, pull out a small, laminated card you’ve had made as a prop for this purpose. Then remind Mitt Romney that the ranks of the uninsured today are equal to the combined populations of Oklahoma, Connecticut, Iowa, Mississippi, Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, Utah, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont and ­Wyoming.

Read that list slowly, Mr. President. Then ask your opponent: Would America turn its back on the citizens of these 25 states if everyone there lacked basic health coverage?

How would you answer the question?

 

Karen Sue Smith is the former editorial director of America.