Republican hypocrisy

Source of Ben Sargent cartoon, from the NY Times


Democratic members of Congress act as though they need the Republicans to tell them it’s ok to act. The Republicans didn’t need that kind of approval when they were in power under Bush’s presidency. It’s time for Democrats to be on TV explaining the health bill to the public and to be in regular contact among themselves doing the same thing.

After that, those congress members who are prepared to deny health care to the nation should renounce their own very complete and comfortable coverage.

Also, all the complaining about how much health care costs is hypocrisy: nobody complained in the Bush years when cash was piled onto ships with bulldozers to be shipped off to Iraq, and nobody demanded accountability for its later use. And the disaster that came from years of unsupervised banking and stock-market practices certainly has not been not cheap to remedy. When Republicans recommend thrift and belt-tightening exercises they really mean they want to continue their highly questionable free-access to limitless resources. I do not want to give the impression that I think previous profligate economic practices justify present ones. Rather, I believe it is important to uncover the lie behind Republican fiscal posturing.

Bipartisanship is not dead; it never existed. The Republican message is based on fear-mongering and outright lies. If the gentlemen and gentle ladies from the other side of the Congress don’t become more aggressive they will be destroying a unique opportunity for inclusive action and history will not be kind to them.