I am heartbroken to report that, yet again, America’s leader has lied to his public.
I know there were millions out there who knew all along it would happen, that this supposed man of the people, this demagogue, would first drive his deluded followers to betray their own country in the name of his twisted ideology, then he would sell out the entire nation to the highest bidder. Really, it should come as no surprise, what with his record of deception, distortion, and back room deals, that what with his drug abusing past, that this fraud was not a real American at all. That this charlatan was born, bred, and programmed to lie to us. You just have to wonder why so many swallowed his lies for so long.
Now, hopefully, everyone sees him for who he is.
I am, of course, talking about Rush Limbaugh and him backing out of his pledge to move to Costa Rica if the health care bill got passed. It did and he’s still here backtracking faster than a train-wreck in reverse. Small surprise Limbaugh is against healthcare, he’s made so many of us so sick to our stomach.
But to tell the tale–as of Monday March 22nd, everyone from the Phoenix Examiner to the Huffington Post are cackling over Media Matters’ transcription of Limbaugh now clarifying what he really meant in his little hyperbolic hyperventilation. Thanks Rush, i was so way off base. Like millions of Americans, when Limbaugh said, “If this passes and it’s five years from now, and all that stuff gets implemented, I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica,” I thought he meant he was leaving the country and going to Costa Rica. Silly me, so confused by such simple words.
On the Monday morning-after, after the bill wound up being passed in a marathon Sunday session that went so long Energizer Bunnies were panting for at least a pee-break, when it was time for Mr. Limbaugh to put up or … well, you know, Rush’s fate worse than death, Limbaugh quickly clarified: “Who thought that I said I would move to Costa Rica if we got health care passed? No, no, no once all this implemented I am going there for my health care.”
And who could blame him for a choice like that?
Costa Rica has universal health care just like all civilized countries do. Oh, i mean except for the US. We have the finest healthcare system in the world, or so i heard some Republican representative say. Well, barely heard that is, above the sound of 45,000,000 uninsured Americans laughing out loud at his audacity, and the 45,000 who died last year from lack of health care rolling over in their mass grave. Truth is World Health Organization actually ranks us 37th in the world, right behind, you guessed it, Costa Rica.
To be sure there was hypocrisy on both sides and meaningless slogans made more meaningless by multitudinous repetition, but around hour five of watching the debate the necessity of this bill passing became incredibly clear. It sometime around the time when Rep Nunes was calling the bill writing process totalitarian when his party was merely being spanked by their own Bush-era tactics. Or maybe it was when Rep. Darrel Issa was weeping over the 80 GOP amendments that got ignored as an example of the partisan nature of the bill, at the same time Issa himself was ignoring the 200 GOP amendments that did get included.
And just saying: if they seriously cared about the fact that we are borrowing 43% of our budget and creating a deficit, they could easily cut it from the 51% of our national budget that goes to the military and still have our military spending be nearly 10% of our national budget and it would still be double what we spend on educating our children.
Maybe it was right before Texas Rep. Randy Neugebauer led the GOP to turn their tact to suggesting anti-abortion Dems were “baby killers” because Obama’s promise of issuing an executive order to prohibit federally funded abortion was nothing more than a worthless piece of paper since executive orders are farcically meaningless. Except, of course for the 800 or so executive orders of George Bush which so obstructed the will of Congress that in July of 2008, a televised House of Representatives hearing questioned whether Bush’s use of executive orders was so tyrannical it was tantamount to an impeachable offense.
And seriously, if one could accurately count the number who have died because they couldn’t, and/or their health insurance company wouldn’t, pay for their medical treatment since Teddy Roosevelt (a Republican) was 1st thwarted in his effort to set up a universal health system, the number would easily dwarf the supposed “American Holocaust” right-to-lifers have harangued about since Roe V. Wade. Of course the Right’s hypocrisy on this issue is so bald it beleaguers the imagination, since they in general have endorsed the holocaust of dead babies our country has created in our wars and incursions since 1973. Of course they don’t seem to care much for mommies either since childbirth deaths in women have been on the rise since the 1st Bush was in power. Perhaps his thousand points of light were actually underinsured mothers getting their wings.
Actually if you just counted the death and suffering of those denied sufficient medical care due to expense merely since Clinton gave up on chasing universal health care in favor of making DNA deposits on Monica’s blue dress, the numbers would be enough to make Bush the Butcher look like a compassionate conservative. And truly he was, for even if he killed a million Iraqis, he did make sure they receive universal health care. The title of this piece is not just some sleazy sex joke about a bikini wax (not merely that), because the stain of their years in allegiance to Bush shades every one of Limbaugh and his Congressional lackeys’ words.
If the Right actually cared about the dignity of life, they’d be insisting on universal healthcare for the millions of women who suffer from the twin evils of illness and poverty in obscurity, and not grandstanding for extraordinary measures for the Terri Schiavos of the world when the cameras were watching. If they really cared about the sanctity of life they would have stopped Bush, or would have denounced him by now and would turn away from a fraud like Limbaugh, who championed Bush then, and have now become so Conservative he simply champions BS. If Rush lied to you about Bush, what makes you think that he isn’t lying to you now? How many other things have you been lied to about? Death panels, government takeovers, and baby-killing, to name a few. And that’s just this one bill.
And no, do not misunderstand or simplify my point. Like most liberals there is much i hate about this bill. To be gentle, this bill sucks sorrier than a rickety respirator; BUT– It is indeed better than nothing, been terribly distorted by its opponents, does take several necessary 1st steps to long term improvements, and but one of the key battles in the Right V. Left Charade. Sure the whole show is run by the richest 1% or so, not matter which party appears to be in power; but down here at ground level; the right is going ballistic and they already bought the bullets to get there.
To judge the Right by their own rhetoric, they are getting ready to start lynching parties as soon as they tire of tea and they are continuingly get ramped up to reach for the headier stuff. Make no mistake, this really is a culture war and the other side has taken no pledge of non-violence. All by itself that was enough reason to cheer for this bill’s passage.
It is in the entire country’s best interest to have a train-wreck like the GOP juggernaut derailed as frequently as possible. With Americans like Limbaugh and Beck, we won’t need any foreign terrorists; we’ll destroy ourselves. Right now, the Right needs continuing discreditation and invalidation, or we are all headed for Rwanda, people.
BTW, here’s a pretty good link summarizing the healthcare bill:
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/bgemw/so_healthcare_has_passed_can_someone/c0mngn3
–mikel weisser writes from the left coast of AZ.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment