Jan Brewer: Channelling her inner Marie Antoinette

Who knew that Brewer was such a Francophile?

On the other hand, perhaps Brewer isn't a Francophile and was just looking for the historical figure who was most openly disdainful of her society's most impoverished members.

If that is the case, then the Governor has made the perfect choice for her political inspiration.

From AZCentral.com -

That was then, this is now . . . Gov. Jan Brewer held a news conference Thursday to complain about the plans for federal health-care reform. That gave reporters a chance to ask about the budget she signed that day, which among other things removed health care from an estimated 310,000 adults and nearly 40,000 children.

Asked what those hundreds of thousands of people should do when they get sick, Brewer said this: "If they need health care, they'll be able to go to health clinics and present themselves at emergency rooms."

Not everyone agrees with that sentiment, of course. We were reminded of some stern words we heard back in January from a top Arizona official:

"We must decrease visits to high-cost settings like emergency rooms - and encourage those receiving state services to take personal responsibility for their own health."

The occasion for those remarks? The 2010 State of the State Address. The speaker, of course, was Gov. Jan Brewer.

Note: Her State of the State address can be found here. The relevent quote is on page 13 of the .pdf, approximately halfway down the page.

Now, the health insurance reform act that was signed into law this week could go a long way toward ameliorating some of the effects (and here) of Brewer's and the legislative Republicans' jihad against Arizona's social infrastructure. However, that measure won't go into complete effect until 2014; until then, Brewer will continue railing against health care for all (like she already has, here, here, here, and here).

The Brewer campaign's new slogan -

"Let them eat cake."

It's a classic, isn't it?


P.S. - the scary part is that as bad for Arizona that Brewer is and has been, she may be the least bad among the R pretenders/contenders for their nomination.

We need Terry Goddard.