Tennessee’s Stacey Campfield Slammed for Comparing Obamacare to Holocaust
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Republican Tennessee State Senator Stacey Campfield is under fire for comparing Obamacare to the Holocaust.
Democrats and Republicans alike piled on the lawmaker, who wrote that mandatory health coverage is akin to being sent to a concentration camp.
National Jewish Democratic Council Executive Director Rabbi Jack Moline said Campfield’s invoking the Holocaust “ends serious consideration of (his) message.”
Leaders of both parties in Tennessee were quick to criticize Campfield’s comments.
“Senator Campfield’s blog post this morning is just the latest example of Tea Party Republican extremism,” said Roy Herron, chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party. “To compare attempts to save American lives through access to healthcare with Nazis killing European Jews is outrageous, pathetic, and hateful.”
Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chris Devaney also condemned his fellow Republican’s remarks, which he called “ignorant and repugnant.”
“No political or policy disagreement should ever be compared to the suffering endured by an entire generation of people. Those comments have no place in our public discourse,” Devaney said. “He should offer an apology to members of the Jewish faith immediately.”
Campfield made the offensive comments in a “Daily Musing” posted to his blog on May 5.
“Democrats bragging about the number of mandatory signups for Obamacare is like Germans bragging about the manditory [sic] signups for ‘train rides’ for Jews in the (1940s),”
Campfield told WKRN-TV Nashville that he “is not minimizing loss of life” during the Holocaust, but said “it is not an accurate portrayal for the administration to brag and signups for Obamacare when it’s mandatory.”
“When you control people’s health, you control their lives and if they live or die,” he added.
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