First, we had months of fretting about "death panels" after Sarah Palin used those two words in a Tweet on Twitter (who come up with these silly internet names anyway ? "Google," "Yahoo," "Twitter." "I taut I taw a puddy tat." Do we have any grownups on the web ?). Then we had the dustup about covering illegal immigrants, resulting in the infamous "You Lie!" comment from Joe Wilson (R-SC).
Now it's come to this. Here's Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), allegedly summing up the Republican Health Care plan. This is about as dumbed down as it gets.
There you have it. For everyone out there who didn't know the GOP plan before, you know it now. It's 1) Don't get sick, 2) And if you do get sick, 3) Die quickly.
This sets the new low bar in dumbed down political rhetoric. Rep. Grayson's Florida constituents must be mighty proud of electing him to office right about now. Predictably, GOP'ers in Congress were outrageously outraged over Grayson's inane remarks. GOP'ers thought they were the only ones allowed to make stupid "they want to kill your grandma" type statements.
When GOP members demanded an apology for the remarks, Grayson said the following on the House floor, "“I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.”
It's a "holocaust" now ? Suddenly, Moammar Qadhafi's speech in front of the U.N. is starting to sound coherent by comparison. Forget about finding grownups on the web. We need a few more grownups in Congress.
I searched the internet looking for the Republican "Die Quickly" plan, but I'm sad to report I couldn't locate it. All I could find was this plan, this plan, and this plan, in addition to some current state plans like Massachusetts' RomneyCare, or Cover Florida from Governor Charlie Crist.
Of course, we can always listen to twits like Alan Grayson instead, as he attempts (successfully) to get his 15 minutes of fame.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I compared Republican & Democrat healthcare plans with links to both proposals at my blog The Unfamiliar. http://www.rimemagazine.com/article/1044/comparing_the_republican_&_democrat_health_plans
You have to love the lectures by the progressives and the mainstream press about civility and the creation of an atmosphere that leads to intractable divisions. Yet this outburst will be minimized, rationalized , or an excuse to demonize those that oppose the progressive agenda. I am always amazed by the lefts inablitly to reconize hyprocrisy when they engage in it. I assume because they claim the moral high ground they are exempted from the very behaviour they assign to those that oppose them.
Those who would stop health care reform….Republicans….are proving Grayson to be more than correct.
44,000 Americans die each year because they lack health insurance. Sounds like a holocaust to me. What the hell would conservatives call it? A picnic?
And what the hell is the GOP's plan for health care reform? End any liability for doctors who kill their patients? Freaking health savings accounts for the filthy rich to park more tax exempt money? Republicans have nothing to offer and everyone knows it now. So when Grayson points out that the GOP plan is, "don't get sick", and if you do, "die quickly"……that seems about right to me. If conservatives don't like the harsh rhetoric…..clean up your own house first.
If conservatives are looking for a compassionate response to their hatefulness……they'll be looking for a very long time.
Hmmm, just how exactly is the figure of 44,000 a year calculated? I don't recall ever seeing "no health insurance" as a cause of death. How many Americans die each year who *have* health insurance? Speaking as someone who does not currently have health insurance, if I die, it won't be because of my lack of insurance. Now, the bill if I got really sick might kill me (sticker shock), though.
I think what bothers me the most is the oversimplification that conservatives or anyone opposed to the Democrats' health bill simply supports the status quo or "hates" the poor and uninsured. So many straw men…is this Oz? Sorry, I may be opposed to more government involvement in healthcare, but I hardly consider the status quo the best or only alternative solution. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."
And holocaust? Wow, talk about redefining the word! A holocaust would be far far far more people and far more horrific than simply not being able to afford insurance. It's a lot like comparing Gitmo to a Nazi death camp or a Soviet Gulag. Not even close and such a comparison shows incredible ignorance to history and reality.
Perhaps the answer is NO health care. More people die each year that have health care than those that dont therefore the solution must be no health care for anybody and less people will die. And they said I couldnt grasp progressive logic.
I say "turn about is fair play."
Come on what is the republican plan ? How can you have any discussion with a group that just wants to destroy any plan that comes out . We pay taxes already so our dear congressmen can enjoy health care on us and so can prisoners and military people and teachers but not the average citizen. The republican plan is to beat something with nothing
and with the help of the insurance company lobbyists they might just do that.
I'm wondering if the Rev or Andrea actually read any of the Republican health care plans I linked to. It seems not.
And no condemnations from the liberal commenters about Grayson's rhetoric, which is the same type of rhetoric they claim to find so distasteful from Republicans. The Reverend even AGREES with Grayson. That's pretty much what I expected, I'm sad to say.
Now, King, you know that if a bill doesn't have at least 1000 pages written largely by some lobbyists, who weren't going to be allowed in Oba mao's DC just can't cover reform. Why they think that this is the only way to do it. Surely without at least 1000 pages that can't be understood by even the Congress critters reform just isn't reform.
When will our progressives here manage to talk to the old type bill with an average of less than 100 pages? I guess they really don't see why the rest of us would worry after their totally lobbyist written Stimulus bill was passed with no reading at all. Surely they don't think that Bush meant what he said about "fool me once" and all that. They are so far gone on their desire to establish socialism that they really do believe that the voters of this nation are so stupid that they want another fool me bill to pass without discussion.
OK, who here thinks the Congress will pass anything as involved as any of the Democrat proposals that are all aimed at socialized medicine without any debate at all? I wonder how many new taxes will be involved in the final law. It will be enough that only fools would think that Our Glorious Leader was at all involved in any part of this since he promised no new taxes at all on anybody but those feelthy rich people. Those Congress Dems are making him look like more of a liar all the time.
Roy,
It's much harder to confuse the heck out of people with those short bills. With short bills, the people might actually understand what's in a bill. The Dems can't have that. The entire purpose of Congress these days is to bamboozle. If the people actually understood, they'd be firmly against what Congress is proposing. I mean, do you think the people would actually vote to be forced to purchase health insurance, and to have their utility bills skyrocket, and to jack up the price of smokes, and to run up the largest deficits ever ? No way. Passing that stuff requires a massive amount of subterfuge. The Dems and their pet media are up to the job.
Look up the definition of the word "holocaust." Grayson used the right word.
And angry…..I do love your wry humor….I do. Good stuff. Let's try this out….if many Americans were dying from starvation…..would it be because they couldn't get access to food…do you think? Would opponents of giving food to starving Americans try to argue that those starving folks were not starving from lack of food? Just sayin'.
Rev,
Bottom line is, you're nuttier than a fruitcake.
There aren't any Americans without access to health care, so your food analogy doesn't hold water, and Grayson's "holocaust" comment is inane and insulting to victims of true holocausts.
Exit question – How many Americans WITH health insurance die each year ?
I can't believe you said this….
"There aren't any Americans without access to health care"
Let them eat cake would have fit your agenda too.
And how silly to say that Americans with health care also die each year. They don't die BECAUSE they have health care, you silly. Those without insurance DO DIE BECAUSE they don't have health insurance…..that's the whole point.
Which Americans are denied treatment at the emergency room, Rev ?
Answer – None. It's against the law to deny that treatment. I repeat, all Americans have access to health care.
How do you determine if someone died from not having health insurance ?
How silly is it to say that all those people die because they don't have healthcare. Surely they would be about the same proportion of those with healthcare that die in spite of having that care. Sometimes I wonder when the fools who want single payer so bad will stop coming up with totally inane ideas about how badly it is needed. It seems to me that sooner or later they will have to admit that truth.
I will await Rev's answer to the question about how we determine if a person died from not having health insurance. After we get that one maybe someone from the left will be able to tell us how many of them were in the group that refuses to buy insurance although they could afford it.
I'd guess that folks who don't buy healthcare insurance have higher rates of alcoholism, poor nutrition, smoking, etc., etc. Going in for a yearly checkup might help some of them but unless they make holistic life changes I doubt it will do much except put the rest of us in more debt. They'd be better off with decent jobs.
larry,
You've also stated the reason why linking life expectancy to quality of medical care (as the liberals keep doing) is an exercise in futility. If someone smokes, drinks, eats bad food, is sedentary, and is obese, the best medical care in the world won't save him. All these things are more rampant in America than in other countries.