How's this for hyperbole? At a press conference yesterday, House minority leader John Boehner called the House health reform bill "the greatest threat to freedom I have seen in my 19 years in Washington."
John Boehner's impassioned hyperbole at a GOP health care rally on November 5th.
A piece of legislation meant to increase health care coverage for millions of people throughout the United States is the "greatest threat to freedom" he has ever seen?
The House bill is so "out there" it has been endorsed by such radical
organizations as the American Medical Association and the American
Association of Retired Persons (AARP), which represents some 40 million Americans.
This would be laughable if not for the following realities. First, he is in fact the leader of one of two major political parties in the United States and has engaged in destructive rhetoric since day one of the Obama Administration.
Two, he leads House Republicans, who have vowed not to deliver one single vote in favor of health reform tomorrow (Saturday) despite innumerable efforts by Democrats to appease even the most outlandish requests by the Republicans. (And for some reason the Democrats continue to believe they need to compromise with these folks, which only emboldens them further.)
And three, he and others in the Republican party--a party that is itself now so far right in its entirety there is no "wing" left to speak of, it just is the party of the far, far right--are relying on the frenzy of a large contingent of people from throughout the United States so ill-informed and so unable to engage in democratic debate about anything that they were comparing health reform to the Holocaust. Really.
"National Socialist Health Care: Dachau, Germany -- 1945," read a sign that ThinkProgress' Lee Fang captured on camera [16]. The image appears to show dead bodies from the Nazi holocaust piled one on top of another.
Blogger Matthew Yglesias commented [17]:
There are all kinds of nutty people in the world, but these kinds of
things are the wages of a conservative leadership and media that’s
consistently tried to drum up opposition to health care reform not by
opposing things that are actually in the bill, but with demagogic
opposition to completely fabricated provisions.
That pretty much sums it up.
Other News to Note
November 6th, 2009
-
Pro-life programs get
support [18] Manila Bulletin -
Family calls
for changes to adoption rules [19] North Norfolk News - Gay adoption complex,
controversial issue [20] The Reflector online
November 5th, 2009
- Cash Payments
to Avoid Teen Pregnancy? Great Idea [21] U.S. News & World Report - Abortion
Linked to Increased Mental Health Problems [22] Right Side News - Pro-choice rally to
demand government action on Cairns abortion prosecution [23] The Westender - Lack of
abortion services on Cape causes concern [24] Barnstable Patriot - Pro-life or pro-choice? [25] Jamaica Observer
- Parents lose
sex classes opt out [26] BBC News - Call for
Reform of US Bishops' CCHD Bolstered by New Evidence [27] Lifesite - Reproductive
Rights Update: A Regional Shift [28] AS/COA Online - Sen. Casey
Won't 'Draw Line in Sand' on Abortion-Funding in
Health Care Bill [29] CNSNews.com - Pro-abortion group
endorses female Catholic politicians for 2010 race [30] Catholic News Agency - Abortion law
endangers young women [31] Chicago Tribune - Abortion: A
pro-choicer converts [32] The Week Magazine - Nun Defiant
Following Rebuke, but Stops Abortion Escorting [33] Lifesite - Will Blue
Dogs stand fast against abortion coverage? [34] OneNewsNow - New Abortion Funding
Amendment in Health Bill a Sham and Should Be Rejected [35] Reuters - Abortion Practitioner
Admits "Yes I Am" Killing Unborn Children During Abortions [36] LifeNews.com - Clyburn on abortion, health bill [37] msnbc.com [38]
- Anti-abortion activists
arrested at Pelosi's suite [39] The Associated Press - House
Democrats' Abortion Battle on
Healthcare Down to the Wire [40] U.S. News & World Report - Abortion as
"health care reform" is nothing new for Secretary Sebelius [41] RenewAmerica - Inefficient abortion law [42] Chicago Tribune
- Abortion Notification
Law Looms Over Illinois Teens [43] Air America - Debunking
John Boehner's "Monthly Abortion
Premium" Claim [44] Open Congress Blog - Immigration
and abortion:
healthcare-reform hot buttons [45] Los Angeles Times - Baltimore
City Council Takes First Step to Target Pregnancy Centers Over Abortion [46] LifeNews.com - Argentinian
governor: I will not accept abortion or
homosexual 'marriage' [47] Catholic News Agency - Birth control shot: too
effective? [48] KXRM - Abortion
Opponents Cannot Be Allowed to Derail Health Care Reform [49] Huffington Post - Lower
Fertility Rate is Improving the World in Incredible Ways ... [50] Change.org Global Health - Muskegon
Family Care family
planning clinic to close [51] Muskegon Chronicle - Millions of
babies depending on Clyburn to make pro-life vote [52] Sumter Item - Americans
United for Life: Rep. Ellsworth's Proposal Does Not Prevent Abortion ... [53] Reuters - What does 'pro life' really
mean? [54] Dubuque Telegraph Herald
Follow Jodi Jacobson on Twitter, @jljacobson [55]