The Undying Shame
I'm not sure John Boehner(R-OH) making a generic statement that violence, threats and vandalism aren't legitimate parts of the Health Care Reform debate really cuts it. Especially when his own congressional campaign committee is actively downplaying the importance of violent incidents and even blaming them on the victims.
Thankfully, no one has been injured or killed. But this didn't come from nowhere and it can't be pawned off on a few cranks. Everything that's happened over the last five days has grown from a pattern of incitement going back almost a year -- wildly hyperbolic statements, coded appeals to menacing behavior, flippant jokes about bringing firearms to political events and all the rest. Now Eric Cantor (R-VA) is going on the attack, claiming that who's really to blame here is the Democrats for making a big deal about these acts of violence against them.
Republicans are trying to avoid blame for encouraging violence. What a shocker. These are the people that would like to have a replay of the Civil War - so they can bring back the good old days of slavery ( a state's right), women knew their place and could not vote and poor whites knew their place - working for low waging and going no where.
Republicans Block Bills Ensuring Continuation Of Military Health Care
As ThinkProgress reported earlier today, some military families have been concerned about how the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will affect their health care. Fears about the legislation have been fueled, in part, by lawmakers like Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA), who has claimed that “now their programs are going to be administered like welfare programs, rather than earned military benefits.”Though out history the totalitarians on the far left and far right have relied on dispensing false information -propaganda - to win over public opinion. Republicans are following the same recipe to the letter.
There is another piece of misinformation floating around that’s important to clear up. The new law has an individual responsibility requirement, meaning that every person must have health coverage (or receive an affordability waiver), otherwise he/she will be subjected to a fee. The Affordable Care Act doesn’t explicitly state that TRICARE — the military’s health program — will meet the individual responsibility requirement. So on Saturday, lawmakers — out of an abundance of caution — passed separate legislation affirming that TRICARE will not be affected. As House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) stated when the legislation was unanimously approved:
While beneficiaries of these programs will already meet the minimum requirements for individual health insurance and will not be required to purchase additional coverage, the TRICARE Affirmation Act would provide clarification by changing the tax code to state it in law.
No surprise that Harris poll finds Republicans believe GOP smears of Obama
A Harris poll released on March 24 found that a majority of Republican respondents believe that President Obama "is a socialist," "wants to take away Americans' right to own guns," "is a Muslim," "wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government," and "has done many things that are unconstitutional." The findings follow a year of such smears and attacks on Obama by conservatives.The only major attacks America has had on its constitutionally guaranteed freedoms - the liberal based Bill of Rights - has been by the Bush and Reagan administration. Where were these crazy right-wing tea baggers and conservatives then? They were claiming that Reagan and Bush had the right to trample over every citizen's right in the name of supposedly keeping America safe. What terrible thing did President Obama do. He saved tens of thousands of lives with the passage of health care reform and took measures to save the economy that conservative policies caused to crash.
Republicans have bought into right-wing smears of Obama
According to the Harris poll, conducted of 2,320 adults between March 1 and March 8, a majority of Republicans believe Obama is a socialist (67 percent), wants to take away Americans' right to own guns (61 percent), is Muslim (57 percent), wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one-world government (51 percent), and that he has done many things that are unconstitutional (51 percent). Large minorities also believe Obama was not born in the United States and is therefore ineligible for the presidency (45 percent), is a racist (42 percent), and is doing many things Adolf Hitler did (38 percent).
In the past two years, conservatives in the media have advanced many of these false claims, including that Obama is in fact a Muslim and not a Christian, wants to take away Americans' guns, and was not born in the United States. They have also advanced numerous smears that Obama is a socialist, a racist, and has policies and beliefs similar to Hitler's.
