What a despicable and outlandish performance put on by Republican lawmakers at President Obama s speech to Congress last night on the topic of health care reform. Though unprecedented in their contempt for proper decorum at such a gathering, the childish manner in which Republicans on the Hill chose to express themselves is not surprising. After witnessing just how successful such bluster and showboating could be at town hall meetings during the August recess, and after the way they acted in last year s election, it really should come as no shock that they would stoop to this level.
According to the Huffington Post, House Republicans arrived at the joint session of Congress with ‘signs, props, and a lot of attitude’. Throughout the speech, Republican members of Congress held up stacks of paper that supposedly represented ideas they had for the bill. One Republican Congressman from Texas, Louie Gohmert, even held up signs that read ‘What Bill?’ and ‘What Plan?’. When Obama told the chamber that the “death panel” lie was, in fact, a lie, a Republican member said loudly enough to be heard in the press gallery, “Read the bill”- a common refrain at August’s angry town hall meetings. When Obama told the chamber that he had “no interest in putting insurance companies out of business,” a Republican member responded with a loud, “Ha!”
Perhaps the most shameful, and ironic, display of antics was when Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted “You lie!” after Obama denied that his health care proposal would cover illegal immigrants. Shameful because this was the floor of the United States Congress, not some high school gym in Columbia; ironic because the Congressman is calling the President a liar when provisions in the bill explicitly state that illegal immigrants WILL NOT be covered. The outburst was so out of line that members of Congress from both sides of the isle quickly called for the Congressmen to apologize. Not long after, the Congressman did just that, issuing a statement in which he called his comments ‘inappropriate and regrettable’.
This kind of behavior is truly unprecedented, and should be seen as a sign that Republicans in Congress never intended to negotiate in good faith with Democrats to pass real health care reform. They have been, and always will be, more concerned with their own party s political fortunes, with doing the bidding of health insurance companies that donate millions to their campaigns and PACs, and most unfortunately with seeing that the President fails to pass his agenda, thus denying millions of Americans what the rest of the world recognizes as a right and not a privilege.
Enough with the lies, enough with the showboating, enough with the childish outbursts. It is time we had a minority party that was actually concerned with taking care of the American people instead of being concerned with sophistry and power. The American people need to realize that this Republican Party is not the Republican Party of generations passed. It is an elitist, self-righteous, ideologically driven party that is full of demagogues and blowhards. In these difficult times, it is vital that Americans recognize that there is only one party that truly has their interests in mind, that has always had their true interests in mind, and that has historically proven as much. While the Republicans are busy with their Town Hall stunts and high flying circus acts, the Democrats will be working to pass policy that will actually help the American people.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
“President Obama said this week that his health care plan won’t cover illegal immigrants, but argued that’s all the more reason to legalize them and ensure they eventually do get coverage.”
So in essance if you break the immigration laws you are rewarded with citizenship. So Wilson was prophetically right. Currently anyone who attains citizenship has to wait 5 years before recieving government support. Again, this is my money, your money that is being used against the will of half the American public.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/18/obama-ties-immigration-to-health-care-battle/?feat=home_cube_position1
The Republicans have the cahnce here to take the moral high road, but they are not… as I said, two wrongs don’t make a right. The Republicans and those who support them, in using the “but they did it first so we’re going to do it too” throw away any right to complain or paly the moral authority trump card.
And when Bush and Company FIRED and outed as agents anyone in Washington who didn’t agree with them, that was any better? You all have very short memories about that. The only reason a Democrat is in the White House at all has nothing to do with his color and everything to do with the fact that the Bush and his Beltway supporters screwed up so badly. The only way color played a part in this at all is that it got McCain more votes than he would have had if the Dem candidate had been white.
You are proof that the played become the players.
Only the Democrats care for this country, really?
The “trillions” spent to create the welfare state and millions in entitlements which reward staying in bed and keeping dads out of the home, equal rights bill that would have failed without republican majority support under Johnson.
Czars taking the power of checks and balances from congress, a senior democratic congressman that ran for Grand Dragon of the KKK, leftist “hatred” against all republican presidents voiced as loud and nasty as anything I’ve ever seen since Reagan. Leftist praised movies depicting the assassination of Bush.
You have the audacity to attack a few commoners for not displaying the class and decorum you yourself are devoid of?
All the world s a stage and we are all but players. You poor Uric are a bad actor.
And two wrongs don’t make a right…
Yeah and the antics of the democrats booing Bush at the State of the Union don’t make it into your piece. Or Nancy Peolosi calling him a liar, granted not on the floor, don’t do your piece any good either. You seem to forget all the outrageous claims by the left during the Bush years. You just don’t like it when the other guy pays you back for what you did either. Fair is fair and whinning about how you are treated is no excuse for the treatment you have given.
Americans should send these disrespectful clowns home without their publicly funded top flight insurance coverage. Maybe if they have to scramble for jobs and insurance they’ll begin to understand the importance of health care reform.
Nice job.
Get ready for it, cause it’s going to get ugly… the same kind of behavior we all have seen in the town hall meetings and now Congress is going to come to you. It is not enough anymore for someone to disagree with you, they have do be nasty and insulting about it. We were asked by the Republican pundits and leaders to respect President Bush’s position and authority, no matter what he did because he is the President. Too bad they can’t send the same courtesy to our current President. And they bristle at being called hypocrites while their leadership claims some sort of hold on moral authority…