So, the Republicans are comparing Rep. Alan Grayson to Joe Wilson and Sarah Palin now, this is interesting. If you have not been watching the news recently, Rep. Alan Grayson gave a passionate speech in which he claimed that the Republican healthcare plan calls for Americans to not get sick and if they do they should die quickly. Grayson said this in reference to a Harvard study that was released that states that 44,000 Americans die each year because they lack proper health coverage.
Republicans have been calling on him to apologize for this remark. Many others have much stronger feelings.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ken Spain said, “This is an individual who has established a pathological pattern of unstable behavior. He is derailing the national debate on health care reform and embarrassing his constituents as a result.” Of course, Spain failed to mention the Palin death panels lie, or the swarm of republican protestors who famously raked a pile of shit on the health care debate by comparing Obama to Hitler and health care reform to the holocaust.
So, what did Grayson do? He apologized of course. This is the only transcript of the apology I was able to find. I am not sure if the sentence fragments are because he was speaking, or because the writer screwed up, but here it is.
“Last night, I gave a speech and I’m not going to recount everything I said but after that speech, several republicans asked me to apologize. I would like to apologize.
I would like to apologize and here’s why. According to this study, health insurance and mortality in adults which was published two weeks, 44,000 Americans die every year because they have no health insurance. 44,789 Americans die every year according to the Harvard study. And you can see it by going to our website at grayson.house.gov.
That is 10 times more than the number of Americans who have died in Iraq and who died in 9/11. But that was just once. This is every single year. That’s right. Every single year.
Take a look at this. Read it and weep. And I mean that, read it and weep, because of all these Americans who are dying because they don’t have health insurance. Now, I think we should do something about that and the democratic health care plan does do something about that. It makes health care affordable for those who can’t afford insurance and it safes these peoples’ lives.
Let’s remember we should care about people even after they’re born. I call upon the democratic members of the house, I call upon the republican members of the house, I call upon all of us to do our jobs for the sake of America, for the sake of those dying people and their families.
I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America. I yield the rest of my time.”
Well, I am sure this is not the sort of apology Republicans were looking for. It is clear we have a problem with health care and that needs to be fixed, I just think it is interesting how divided this issue has become. Whether you like what is happening or not, it is clear, the Democrats are proposing reform, the Republicans are just against it.
They have not come up with a bill that addresses these needs. Grayson is right that the Republican plan is so far to advocate the Status quo, which would lead people to die. But to insinuate that the Republicans are advocating for people to die is outrageous and partisan. Also, the holocaust comparison is shallow and meaningless. The only way anyone should compare anything to the holocaust is if some other madman decides to attempt to wipe out an entire race of people by declaring war on the whole world resulting in millions of deaths. Not having health insurance, no matter how sick you are, is different then being gassed or burned alive with your family.
Of course, it should be mentioned that the Republicans are not standing up and saying that they want everything to stay the same. They are advocating for some sort of change. The Republicans are trying to get things like tort reform included in the current bill. They also want to get rid of the restrictions that would prevent customers from going across state lines to buy their insurance. But, they have failed to present a wide ranging bill that addresses all of the problems we face and the complaints that they make.
It is clear that Grayson is contributing to the nonsensical madness that has eroded all logical debate dealing with health care reform. But at this point in the game it is worthless to complain about it. This type of ranting has become common place among top Democrats and top Republicans. We have lies being shouted every which way by anyone with a voice. So, how about we all think for ourselves!
So, in honor of the lunatics and nut-jobs gaining a voice, we offer two websites for you to visit if you want to support of donate money to the lunatic of your choice.
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