“Nothing man has ever done to man in the horrible caprice of power and cruelty, exceeds his self-inflicted punishment.” Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge
America is the strongest nation on Earth, the strongest nation that the world has ever seen. America is so strong that the worst things that ever happen to us are the things that we do to ourselves.
Or the things that the Teahadist D.C. Republicans do to all of us. They want to cut our noses, to spite their faces. They want to shut down our government.
And why are the Tea Party Republicans so desperate to burden the body politic of America with this self-inflicted wound? Just to “de-fund” Obamacare, and make sure that 50 million Americans cannot see a doctor when they are sick.
These are some of the points that Alan Grayson made on national TV a few weeks ago, discussing the possible shutdown of the U.S. Government, by the U.S. Government.
Cenk Uygur: Congressman Grayson, you know, policy-wise, I’m sure you don’t want the government to shut down. It has a lot of consequences. People might not be paid their Social Security, you might not be able to pay the FBI, et cetera, et cetera. On the other hand, politically, God, wouldn’t the Republicans be doing you guys [the Democrats] an enormous favor?
Congressman Alan Grayson: Yes, they would. And I think that it would be the end of the Republican Party as we know it. But let’s talk a little bit about how we’ve come to this point. What Obamacare actually does is that it extends health insurance coverage to 50 million Americans who didn’t have it before now. And in addition to that, it makes health coverage affordable by very simple things like letting buyers pool their buying power through these exchanges, and coming up with transparent form contracts for insurance, so that you can get all the coverage you think you’re getting, without becoming a master of the fine print. Simple things like that. And [Republicans] are so far against letting poor, sick people see a doctor, that the Republican Party, many in the Republican Party, are willing to shut down the American government in order to prevent that from happening. They are so incessantly bent on seeing to it that there’s no healthcare for 50 million Americans that they willing to go that far to do it. That’s crazy. That is absolutely crazy. You know, [Congressman] Barney Frank used to have a bumper sticker that he circulated inside the [House Democratic] Caucus saying, “Democrats may not be perfect, but Republicans, they’re crazy.” And that really is crazy. Osama Bin Laden, in his wildest dreams, never could have dreamed of shutting down the American government, and here the Republican Party is going to do it for him. For his ghost. And for the sake of what? To make absolutely certain that sick people can’t see a doctor? It’s crazy.
Rep. Alan Grayson is a Democrat representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District
