Tag Archives: health care

When I was a little boy growing up in the Depression, my immigrant father who never had the benefit of an education, would take me for a walk in Crotona Park in the Bronx. We would pass people arguing for Socialism, capitalism, women rights, liberalism, conservatism, etc.. and my father would say: “America, America, it is a wonderful country. Here a man can speak freely and the police don’t beat him up.” During the past month, an avalanche of so-called “Patriots” have harassed meetings to discuss health care and they have uttered the most offensive garbage in the history of American politics. Ostensibly, they argue their “patriotism” is analogous to the Boston Tea Party. Unfortunately, their knowledge of American history is equivalent to their ignorance about the Obama health program. In the 1770s, Parliament granted a monopoly on the sale of tea in America to the East India Tea Company and that group proceeded to CUT THE PRICE OF TEA in order to wean Americans from buying tea from smugglers. Of course, the goal of the Obama health plan is to LOWER HEALTH COSTS. For some strange reason these loud mouth fanatics are against lowering costs and prefer that Americans spend more money.

Tea Party advocates employ the language of hate and fear because they are inherently bigots. Bill Hennessy, a St. Louis leader of the Tea Party argues life in Obama America “doesn’t feel like America” and he sees nothing wrong with referring to the president as “our Fuhrer” or the “Grand Dragon Wizard.” Rhonda Linders goes further in her complaints about President Obama and the health care plan. “What is the world going to look like for our children and grandchildren? It’s very scary to see and think that our children may be living under a dictatorship. Maybe in concentration camps.” Huh! A basic argument of Tea Party goons and thugs is that Obama is spending America into bankruptcy. Let’s look at the record:
1. Under the presidency of Republican Ronald Reagan, the national debt doubled.
2. Under the presidency of Democrat Bill Clinton the budget was balanced and even had a surplus. His plan was to use the surplus to begin paying down the national debt.
3. George Bush II inherited a balanced budget and a national debt of$5 trillion. When he left office eight years later the national debt was $11 trillion. Funny, but I don’t recall Tea Party advocates organizing demonstrations against Bush spending America into horrible debt. Could it be the so-called Tea Party is nothing more than a front for the Republican Party?

Tea Party comparisons to Nazi death camps are beyond the pale of political discourse. I gather Tea Party supporters believe Jews in
Auschwitz had health insurance. These words and expressions about Nazism insult every survivor of the Holocaust. How dare these ignorant bigots insult those who truly have suffered!

In case there is rain in your locale tomorrow, let me explain the source of the rain drops. They are the tears of great Republican leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt(by the way, Tea Party supporters it was Teddy who initially advocated the Income tax)Wendell Willkie, Robert Taft, Dwight Eisenhower, Fiorello La Guardia, crying over what has happened to their party.