Is This Any Way To Run A Democracy?
By Thom Hartmann A...
As they begin slowing the Senate down to a virtual halt to protest the secret GOP healthcare bill, are Democrats finally learning what it means to "resist"?
With healthcare for millions hanging in the balance, senate Republicans are STILL refusing to hold hearings on their secret bill to repeal Obamacare.
Imagine a legislative body where laws are written in secret with no public hearings and no input from the opposition.
No - I'm not describing some fictional totalitarian dystopia.
I'm describing the US Senate right now in 2017 under the control of Mitch McConnell and his Republican cronies.
After all that talk about "resistance", Democrats are finally putting their money where their mouth is.
Last night they started using a parliamentary tactic known as "withholding consent" to bring all Senate business to a screeching halt:
"Starting this evening Democrats will begin objecting to all unanimous consent requests in the Senate, save for honorary resolutions. We will seek -- in as many ways as we can, as many times as we can -- to refer the House-passed healthcare bill to committee, where it can be vetted, debated, and amended in the open for the American people to see, as is their right."
The goal is to embarrass Senate Republicans and also force them into explaining to the American people why they're trying to repeal Obamacare without so much as one public hearing.
The way Republicans are trying to repeal Obamacare in secret right now is an affront to democracy. It's also completely hypocritical. Here was what Mitch McConnell said back in 2010 about the infinitely more transparent way Democrats passed Obamacare after 20 public hearings over nearly a year-long period:
"Democrats on Capitol Hill are working behind the scenes on a plan aimed at jamming this massive health spending bill through Congress against the clear wishes of an unsuspecting public. What they have in mind is a last-ditch legislative sleight-of-hand called reconciliation that would enable them to impose government-run health care for all on the American people, whether Americans want it or not."
If Republicans were serious about what they said about Obamacare - how is it what they're doing right now remotely acceptable?
Comments
#2
Remember what Nancy "the loon" Pelosi said about ACA - "We have to pass it to find out what's in it!!"
#3
The last time this jerk McConnell led a secret meeting was to overthrow Obama's Presidency, and we should trust him with our healthcare?
#4
Today's rhetorical question: "If Republicans were serious about what they said about Obamacare - how is it what they're doing right now remotely acceptable?"
But they're the Republicans! "Do as I say, not as I do" is their stock in trade.
Understand that the Republicans don't believe in "all men are created equal" and try to subvert that inconvenient truth any time they can. The Republicans firmly believe in social classes, and they presume they belong to the "higher class" of humans in America, therefore, they hold others to much higher standards than they hold themselves to. Also, the "lower classes" are forbidden to use the tactics and ploys that they (the Republicans) use. For the lower classes to do so is "unfair".
#5
Conservative policy always ruins lives and sometimes even kills. As you can see the GOP is looking to lose more democratic lives here.
#6
The Teabaggers are running the show the same way things are done in Russia....behind the scenes as much as possible with obligatory election fraud. The Kochs have about the same amount of power as Putin...just like them, Putin is worth about 200 billion. Money is the true power in a fascist regime.
Can -tuck- EEE keeps voting the king of fascist ass kissers back into office. Lot's of gullible foxaganda citizens there. McConnell will go down in history as one of the most self serving and disgusting "public employees" of all time.
#7
I see nothing has changed here.:(
“Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
#8
If these bastards ram this bill through and succeed in cutting our health care and all of our social programs and passing their "DeathCare", then anyone who votes yes and anyone who signs it needs to be charged with premeditated murder, and genocide, marched to Leavenworth Prison in Kansas - like Trump's buddy Andrew Jackson marched the Native Americans and dropped them off west of the Mississippi - and put on trial by a military tribunal and hanged publicly in the only mass hanging in American history. We cannot let the GOP make a mockery of our government and our Constitution.
#9
Yea, I second the motion (though forgoing the hangings)! In this dark hour, it serves no good purpose to mince words.
That Republicans are plotting to cheat tens of millions of the sick and the poor out of desperately needed healthcare benefits, which they know full well will cause tens of thousands of deaths each year, just to award undeserved tax breaks to the greediest bastards in America who lavish money on their campaigns, is the vilest act of corruption, immorality, and betrayal imaginable by elected officials, whose bare minimum responsiblity should be to protect the most vulnerable among us.
That they are scheming in secret, hiding from public scrutiny and attempting to ram through such a consequential bill with almost no time for honest and open debate -- spitting on the Framers' most basic constitutional principles of transparent and accountable government -- confirms they truly are the scum of our society, a traitorous faction of fascistic whores, who have defiled their offices. They should all be stripped of the honor and dignity their positions of trust have bestowed upon them. Until the Republican Party finally collapses and fades from history, the electorate should never forget the unforgivable transgressions of this death cult.
What is the difference between committing mass genocide against whole segments of the population, deliberately inflicting needless suffering upon millions, by using guns and bombs or by using pen and ink? Both pogroms are acts of terror against innocent human beings and crimes against humanity. The end result is just the same -- piles of corpses stacked just as high!
Republicans who vote for this despicable piece of legislation will be nothing but cold-hearted murderers, destroying life and promoting death on a scale of depravity only the worst tyrants in history have achieved. If it passes into law, may God NOT have mercy on their unrepentant, stained souls!
At that point, during the signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, Trump and the Republican Party, en masse, will become the mortal enemies of the People and the curse of democracies everywhere, sealing our fate as a pariah state, for which soldiers should no longer fight -- lay down your arms and go home to your families. It's over! The American experiment has failed!
#10
Dems are too soft IMO. They may be thinking about the saying, "Give em a rope long enough and they'll hang themselves". hard to tell if the dems are just waiting for the repugs to implode or what. They certainly don't act very aggressive.
Interesting clip on MSNBC today showing Mitch Mcturtle crying about the secret ACA meetings back in 2009 and how thats not the way to do things. What a hypocritical jerk.
Are people really this stupid?
#11
Christian evangelicals along with Franklin Graham, who have been overwhelmingly supportive the Pres. and his promise of Trumpcare shall have their cake and eat it too along with all the future sufferings of Trumpcare tattooed on their reputation. The AHCA should be called the UnAmerican Health Care Act.
#12
Perhaps Evangelical Christian experiment has failed and everyone is worshipping the friendly God of money and not Christ or his teachings.
#13
The apparently continue to snooker the main public--winning all the elections with the worst possible policies due to their lies being believed. Somehow the democrats have to adopt Bernie's tactics totally and get off their butts and VOTE!
#14
I want to thank Deep Space JohnBest and Scott from Oz for their fantastic comments . I could say much more but I will leave it at that.
#15
We're watching Greg Palast's documentary.
Thank you for making us aware of it.
Contrary to Fox News Palast exhibits no
phony ourage. He tells a dark story with
humor and irony.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
From Screwed:
"Once again, Thom Hartmann hits the bull’s eye with a much needed exposé of the so-called ‘free market.’ Anyone concerned about the future of our nation needs to read Screwed now."
From Cracking the Code:
"Thom Hartmann ought to be bronzed. His new book sets off from the same high plane as the last and offers explicit tools and how-to advice that will allow you to see, hear, and feel propaganda when it's directed at you and use the same techniques to refute it. His book would make a deaf-mute a better communicator. I want him on my reading table every day, and if you try one of his books, so will you."
From Screwed:
"I think many of us recognize that for all but the wealthiest, life in America is getting increasingly hard. Screwed explores why, showing how this is no accidental process, but rather the product of conscious political choices, choices we can change with enough courage and commitment. Like all of Thom’s great work, it helps show us the way forward."
Repugnicans are, always have been, and always will be HYPOCRITES!
'nuff said.