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Huckabee: Kennedy Was Fighting Cancer To Deny Cancer Patients Ability To Fight The Disease

Today, in an attempt to criticize Democrats for using Ted Kennedy’s legacy to pass health care reform, Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AK) argued during a radio segment on ABC Radio Networks that Kennedy would have died sooner under health care reform:

It was President Obama himself who suggested that seniors who don’t have as long to live might want to just consider taking a pain pill instead of getting an expensive operation to cure them. Yet when Sen. Kennedy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at 77, did he give up on life and go home to take pain pills and die? Of course not. He freely did what most of us would do. He choose an expensive operation and painful follow up treatments. He saw his work as vitally important and so he fought for every minute he could stay on this earth doing it. He would be a very fortunate man if his heroic last few months were what future generations remember him most for.”

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Piggy-backing off of Sarah Palin’s claim that health care reform would establish “death panels,” Republicans have launched a coordinated campaign to scare seniors. This week, the effort found Republicans in the rather awkward stance of defending Medicare while simultaneously arguing that the program is “a very good example of what we should not have happen with all of our health care.” Huckabee’s contention is even more baffling. Following Huckabee’s argument to its logical conclusion would suggest that Kennedy fought cancer in order to strip other older Americans of the ability to vigorously fight the disease.