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A Voice for Private Physicians Since 1943

New Years Wish: No More Morally Superior Phonies

By Marilyn M. Singleton, MD, JD

My new year’s resolution is to expose the hypocrisy of the morally superior politicians whose election strategy was to pretend they cared about crafting policies in the country’s best interest.

Take “the wall” on our southern border. Ignoring the opinion of the border patrol agents (51 percent of whom are Hispanic) that it would “without a doubt” be a helpful tool, Nancy Pelosi and her people claimed it would be ineffective in stopping everybody. That’s like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stopping its flu vaccination campaign because the vaccine is only 40-60 percent effective.

And sanctuary state California Senator Kamala Harris was quick to the gun control microphone when some people were shot in a brawl but not a peep out of her when a community is in mourning after its brown-skinned legal immigrant policeman is gunned down at a traffic stop by a twice arrested illegal immigrant.

Expanding on the racist meme, the new talking point is that a wall is “immoral.” Where is the morality in enabling 1.5 million pounds of drugs to enter our country through Mexico contributing to the 70,237 drug overdose deaths — over 200 deaths per day—in the U.S. in 2017? Or in turning a blind eye to MS-13 gang members and criminals entering the country? I imagine the Costa Ricans and Panamanians are racist for securing their borders from the flood of illegal immigrants, and the El Salvadorians are immoral for putting razor wire walls around entire neighborhoods.

There is no morality in exploiting the deaths of two children who had endured a trek through an unfriendly landscape to score anti-Trump political points. (Some parents have admitted that their child was “their passport” to a better chance of getting in the United States.).

It is heartbreaking when any child dies. It is frustrating when there is no obvious cause. The CDC reports that in 2015 in the U.S., 393 children in good health between the ages of 1-18 years died suddenly without a clear cause of death, known as Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC). One migrant child reportedly died of sepsis. Sepsis and septic shock can result from an infection anywhere in the body, including an open cut or scrape. In the United States, more than 75,000 children develop severe sepsis each year. Almost 7,000 of these children from all socioeconomic groups die – this is more than those who die of pediatric cancers. These families also deserve compassion. I didn’t see these outraged, compassionate legislators listed as co-sponsors to the bipartisan House Resolution to increase awareness of sepsis.

Where are the tears for the children of Chiraq? At about 24 deaths a year, children in Chicago’s deteriorating black neighborhoods are being killed 24 times the rate that Chicago soldiers are being killed in Iraq. From September 2011 to 2016, at least 174 children under the age of 17 have been killed in shootings. I’m still waiting for the Obamas to mention the problem, much less solutions to their hometown tragedy.

Multimillionaire Nancy (“We have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it” and if you disagree with me you are sexist) Pelosi is safe in her Napa Wine Country or San Francisco home, far from the drug addicts, dirty needles, feces, gang members and homeless lining the streets of San Francisco. Her voters may be too uninformed or willfully blind to see what she and her ilk have done to this formerly beautiful city. Sadly, the nation will be forced to suffer from her policies that reward scofflaws, patronize the poor, create dependency, and are designed to hustle votes.

Many of the morally superior advocates of government-run healthcare frame the issue as a matter of compassion and social justice for all. The opposite is true. The program will rob every worker of their hard-earned income by doubling their taxes to fully fund Medicare-for-All’s $32 trillion 10-year price tag.

Worse yet, everyone’s liberty will be curtailed. With Medicare-for-All, private insurance is prohibited, doctors will still have to prove that their desired treatment is “medically necessary,” and patients will have longer wait times for services and still get a 7 minute visit with a “provider.” The 63,000 Canadians who left for healthcare in 2017 will have to rely heavily on other medical tourist destinations.

It is highly unlikely that the political elite will be forced to go to the retail clinic at the local drug store or Walmart—certainly not the same southern Virginia Walmart where FBI higher-up Peter Strzok “could SMELL [sic] the Trump support.”

Barely a nanosecond had passed after Speaker Pelosi promised less divisiveness when the newest identity politician shouted from the rooftops (in front of her child), that “we’re going to go in and impeach the mother f—–!”

Because their lives are so much more precious than ours, the power brokers have their private security and the medical care of their choice. They also have no shame.


Bio: Dr. Singleton started medical clinics in two villages in El Salvador and has travelled extensively in Central America. She is a board-certified anesthesiologist. She is President of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). She graduated from Stanford and earned her MD at UCSF Medical School.  Dr. Singleton completed 2 years of Surgery residency at UCSF, then her Anesthesia residency at Harvard’s Beth Israel Hospital. While still working in the operating room, she attended UC Berkeley Law School, focusing on constitutional law and administrative law.  She interned at the National Health Law Project and practiced insurance and health law. She teaches classes in the recognition of elder abuse and constitutional law for non-lawyers.

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