When Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) yelled out that President Obama was a "liar" in the middle of Obama's nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, he became the poster child for the new Republican Party.
I definitely mean poster "child." Since President Obama took office, the language of the Republican Party has become more childish and irresponsible by the day.
President Obama's powerful speech to the nation last night could not have contrasted more sharply. He was the adult in the room, calling on Congress to take responsibility for our future -- for stepping up to solve the health care crisis that worsens every day, for making the changes necessary to allow America to live up to its own democratic values -- to acknowledge that no one should be denied the health care he needs because he can't afford it.
By contrast, the Republicans have careened into schoolyard name-calling; Obama the Nazi, Obama the "Joker" from Batman.
They have begun to act like a gang of juvenile delinquents, doing everything they can to frighten senior citizens -- attempting to convince them that health care reform would jeopardize their Medicare and that the Government would set up "death panels" with the power to pull the plug on Grandma, when both were patently untrue.
There has been a brazen, bullying quality to their rhetoric -- shouting down and intimidating opponents -- a willingness to break the rules and say anything that serves their purposes with a complete disregard for consistency or intellectual honesty. Take their "defense" of Medicare: Remember that the Republicans opposed Medicare from its inception. They said that Medicare would lead to "socialism" the same way they claim that health insurance reform and a public option will lead to "socialism" today. As recently as yesterday some Republicans proposed eliminating Medicare and replacing it with a privatized "voucher" system. Yet they have the gall to pretend to defend it against the Democrats who created it.
And then there has been the irresponsibility of encouraging -- and legitimating -- gun-toting, hate-filled rhetoric by the fringiest of the right wing. The Republican leadership has failed to censure people like the pastor in Arizona who says he prays the President will die. And it has encouraged delusional conspiracy theorists who believe -- contrary to all evidence -- that Obama was not born in the United States.
As children grow up, one of the measures of increasing maturity is their willingness to begin focusing on the long term -- on saving for the future -- on getting a good education -- on the long-term welfare of their family. Instead of throwing a tantrum because they want an ice cream cone now, they start savings their nickels and dimes for the bicycle they want to save up to buy in the future.
But you won't find the Republicans dealing with the affects of global warming on the next generation, or reforming the health care system so it won't devour our economy in the future, or regulating investment markets to prevent reckless investors from wrecking the economy in the years ahead. No, instead of the needs of the next generation, the Republicans want to squander our treasure on short-term tax cuts for millionaires, and short-term profits for large corporations.
Republicans used to have a reputation of staid "conservatism" like they were your stingy old rock-ribbed grandfather. Today's Republican leaders behave like a bunch of teenagers who got their inheritance too early and can't find enough ways to indulge their short-term desire for "more." They no longer reflect the values of middle class families. They reflect the values of reckless, "go go" Wall Street speculators who think anyone who isn't rich like them is a "chump" and that the purpose of our society is to let them indulge their own self-centered, jet-set fantasies.
Most childish has been their practical refusal to admit that they lost the election and that Barack Obama is actually the President of the United States. Their recent attack on the President's speech to schoolchildren that aimed to inspire them to work hard and stay in school may be the clearest example. Whether the Right likes it or not, Barack Obama is the leader of our nation. Questioning the appropriateness of his addressing the nation's children with an uplifting message is the political equivalent of a child closing his eyes, holding his ears and humming so he doesn't have to acknowledge that it's time to go to bed. Sorry, Barack Obama won the election, temper tantrums won't change it.
Last night Joe Wilson etched his political legacy into the wall of American history. He will forever be the poster "child" that symbolizes the new Republican Party.
Robert Creamer is a long-time political organizer and strategist, and author of the recent book: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, available on Amazon.com.
How appropriate.
The party of Eisenhower and Reagan has sadly degenerated into a group of thugs.
Its not that they have a better idea ,its more that they don't have any ideas,or at least no ideas that would help those without insurance , but they also don't want the Demmocrats to have any either so they keep humming while putting their fingers in their ears . Oh but if there was a bill in Congress that would help big corporations they woukld be jumping on that bandwagon like flies on sh-t as they did during a Republican administration .They are against the Health Care bill because its not going to profit the insurance companies they are in debted to .
They worship Ronald Reagan who gave them the largest tax increase in the nation's history. They want to destroy public education now that none of their children attend public schools. They vote for politicians who take the nation to war and then send the children and grand children of the poor and lower middle class to fight it. They don't question war and march off to war when told to.
Lastly, they want to spend tax dollars for war, but not on people's needs. They see no waste in the Pentagon, but every social program is riddled with inefficiency and corruption with everyone getting rich and getting benefits except themselves.
They have a deep distrust of a government by the people and for the people but wholeheartedly espouse a government for the corporations and the rich.
How can they?
That's how bad their rep has become.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574404893691325078.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
To young people, do you realize that when the President says that after the bill is passed, you will have coverage, that what he means is that you will be required to purchase coverage, currently estimated to be at a cost of at least $3800 per year?
Also, there are plenty of folks in the political middle and moderate right that are concerned about the ever-increasing role of government in our lives and a budget deficit that stands this year at 5 times more than any under the last administration. There's no free lunch here. The idea that the deficit will not be increased is ludicrous. The Congressional Budget Office does not agree with the President's cost assessment.
Additionally, one way the cost of Obama's health care reform will be reduced is to get rid of excessive fraudulent practices that are going on now that waste billions of $$ (i.e. excessive and unnecessary tests, double billing, etc.) Because the details haven't been worked out, I don't believe that the OMB knows yet how much Obama's program will cost.
They quite correctly point out that the current proposal to finance it "deficit neutral" are lacking detail and barely credible. The best counter argument to this, of course, is, as Obama has already started to do, call out the hypocrisy of the party that piled billions on our national debt just to feed tax cuts for the super rich.
Also I have heard the GOP argument that it should be legal to purchase health insurance across state lines. Even though I am a "single payer" person myself if we are to increase competition with the "public option" what is wrong with that suggestion? Of course it is not the be all and end all the GOP is claiming it to be but it seems to be a reasonable measure.
The sad fact is that allowing the Limbough fringe and name calling to dominate the debate a healthy exchange of ideas from differening political ideologies has been stifled.
I am beginning to see signs that Republicans who believe in the conservatism of Reagan, and not the maniac fringe haters of today's GOP, are leaving the party. I hope this is a prelude to forming a new center right party that will eventually marginalize today's GOP.
Although I am a die hard liberal I think good debate between reasonable people on the merits of competing ideas is good for democracy.
a minimum of two viable parties is necessary for a democracy or a democratic republic to exist.
The controversial congressman has been a member of Sons of Confederate Veterans. Max Blumenthal, author of the just-published Republican Gomorrah, asks: Did he remain so even after it became a hate group?
Instead, the same kind of virulent nastiness that has always been daily fare for winger blogs has manifested into the mainstream Republican Party. That totally shuts down any hope of being able to even hold an adult conversation about our problems.
You can't work with people who are operating on childish lies and being the worst losers in history.
Best summary of the current Republican Party ever.
if they want to be dealt with like adults and not children, they need to stop answering "No" to everything and begin to propose ideas.
No insurance. No handouts. No Social Security. No Section 8, no WIC, no unemployment "benefits", no disability, no more child tax credits, either. If you can pay, you can play. If you can't, well, that's the American Way. That's real liberty.
Good luck to you Reiziger. But I believe in the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Did I mention I believe in the right to life?
Pros
VA health care has improved over the last few years, President Bush really stepped up veterans care
Much better staff, better quality doctors, The mienimun health care bill signed by Clinton stoped doctors who lost the medical license from working at VA.
VA trains more new doctors then any other medical group,
VA does more research on eldery care than anyone
More than anyone, Veterans, many of them dying, give back to society by allowing medical experiments. This is the last gift that my comrads and I can give.
Cons
too many patients, not enough doctors leading to very long waiting times.
New designer drugs to save lives can take an unsusally long amount of time to get
Congress funds VA, so it is up to congress to decide how much medical care veterans recieve
A VA doctor is forced to decide wat medical care he can give because these is not enough money. So if a doctor want to do a proceedure forcing doctors to go to a board, a group of doctors, or his supervisor to get permission. The medical decision is taken out of his hands.
In an emerecy VA does not always pay those medical bills for the veteran. Some one else decides if it was a "real" emerecy, not the veteran.