As the Democrats try and fight off the big insurance companies and pass strong health insurance reform legislation, it appears obvious that they will be doing it with no help at all from whatever is left of the former Republican party. I say “former” because in the last 6 months, they have shown that they are against ANY change for the better – even those that Republicans supposedly supported in the past. All of the savings people would get from lower insurance costs? They’re against it. Lowering the deficit with a strong public option that could compete with insurance companies? They’re against it. All of the jobs created from the car sales instigated by the incredibly successful Cash for Clunkers program? They’re against it. You name it, they’re against it – even lower taxes (which were a big part of the President’s stimulus and recovery plan passed earlier this year.)
In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find what exactly these former Republicans are FOR, but based on their activities in recent months, I can point to two things: Teabagging and Torture. These are the folks that have recently been going way out of their districts (with the funding of insurance company lobbyists) to disrupt town hall meetings and keep real constituents from being able to communicate with their Representatives. Since they have no argument, their plan is simply to yell and drown out any discussion. The Teabag and Torture party isn’t interested in democracy, they’re interested in gumming up the works.
Worst of all, I don’t think the Teabag and Torture folks realize that they are being lied to and manipulated. You would think after being fooled into believing so many lies over the years (Anyone still believing 9/11 was caused by Saddam Hussein? How about those weapons of mass destruction?) they would start to get a little embarrassed to be still trusting the hacks on Fox News and right-wing talk radio. The lies about President Obama alone (he’s a muslim, no a socialist, no an arab, no a communist, no a fascist, no a terrorist…) should be enough to shame any sane person into reconsidering any source of ‘news’ that would repeat them. I’m especially disappointed when I see anyone from my home state of Illinois buying into any of that (Hello?? He was a state Senator here for 8 years. If he were any sort of extremist, you’d think that might have been in the papers somewhere.)
The latest lie, that heath insurance legislation is going to create “Death Panels” to kill Grandma, was reportedly started by a health insurance representative (no big shock) and repeated by Sarah Palin, the right-wing media, and eventually Senator Chuck “I Get Millions From Health Insurance Companies” Grassley. You have to wonder, as we get closer to passing Health Insurance Reform, how desperate will those companies (and the politicians that they’ve bought) get? Will they say that the legislation will hand over our nuclear weapons to Libya? That there’s a provision in the bill that allows space aliens to beam down and steal your children?
When it gets to this level of ridiculousness, I think it’s fair to ask, “Does the Teabag and Torture party serve any useful purpose whatsoever?” I mean, the only possible goal of all the lying and yelling would be to try and kill any helpful Health Insurance reform measures from passing. Leaving out a strong public option, for instance, would only lead to higher costs for all of us that have insurance, but I think that the TAT party folks don’t even realize that. If they DO realize that the only thing their lying and shouting might achieve is that everyone pays more for health insurance, then I’ll make this deal with them: If the public option passes and any Teabag and Torture party member still wants to throw their money away, instead of giving it to the big insurance companies, I’ll be happy to have them send it to me.
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