Well, well, well, we finally have a Democrat with chutzpah!
His name is Alan Grayson, a Democratic Representative in Florida who calls ‘em like he sees ‘em. It’s not the first time he’s demonstrated his nonconformist persona but it is the first time he got so much media attention in one day.
On the House floor Tuesday night he said bluntly, using simple cardboard posters on an easel, “Here’s the Republican Health Care Plan for America. Don’t get sick. If you do get sick, die quickly.”
Republicans, of course, jumped all over this. They can dish it out but they can’t take it. They asked for an apology, comparing Grayson’s remarks to those of Republican Rep. Joe Wilson who yelled out “You lie” while President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress.
Grayson compared the two situations to apples and oranges.
"I don't know how anybody can equate what I said on the floor…with rudely interrupting the president," he said.
Then he sealed it with an unexpected follow-up.
"I would like to apologize,” he said later. “I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.”
When asked by the liberal media, if he might have used a word other than holocaust, Grayson admitted he might have chosen better phrasing, although various definitions of “holocaust” include “a great or complete devastation or destruction” and “any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life.”
With more than 45,000 people dying every year, in large part due to lack of insurance, perhaps holocaust is a strong word for the present but over time, with death rates climbing, it my be more appropriate than Congress would care to admit. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in early September, 2009 that approximately 46.3 million people in the United States lacked coverage in 2008. (Reuters) That figure is up from 45.7 million in 2007.
On the Rachel Maddow show (MSNBC, Oct 1) Grayson gave the Republicans no mercy, saying “they are utterly unscrupulous, foot dragging, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals who seek to block every piece of legislation that the Democrats bring to the table. Ed Schultz (The Ed Shultz Show) says bluntly “They just don’t like President Obama,”
“They know nothing but ‘no’” said Grayson of the Republicans. “One way or another, we have to overcome it for the sake of the nation.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee, responded with anger, accusing Grayson of being :an unstable man who has come unhinged. The depths to which Alan Grayson will sink to defend his indefensible comments know no bounds.”
My question is are these anti-reformers so stupid that they don’t realize they pay for the poor and indigent and non-insured anyway, right now! It’s simply a hidden cost via taxation that needs to be made public and accounted for. They focus on the small particles of the bills on the table rather than looking at the big picture.
I could be wrong but I think Alan Grayson took a big step toward leading the Democratic public on an upward path of calling it like it is. Hopefully, more of the blue-dog Democrats will man-up, speak up, and grow some verbal cajones.
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