Saintless

I believe that those who so firmly oppose health care reform are driven by prejudice. Prejudiced against the idea that, by helping their fellow man, they could save some money on their own costs. These people are not willing to entertain, even for a moment, that they might benefit from reform that includes a public option. The idea of free market principles, when it comes to health care, has failed. They refuse to admit that they could be wrong, that perhaps their ideology isn’t perfect for this case.

These people cannot stand the idea that they might spend $50 to help save some stranger’s life, and in doing so, save $100 on their own health care.

While there are a lot of ideals that founded our country, one of them was the ideal that by banding together, we could make things better for ourselves.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

And there are some out there who are so afraid of this, that they make up lies about “death panels” or say that illegal immigrants would be covered. They know these things are blatant lies, yet they spread them, and inspire fear in their constituents or viewers, in order to not face the fact that they don’t have a leg to stand on.

Any Senator or Representative worthy of their office should at least consider the idea that health reform has to happen, because the people of our country need it to. They might fight against parts that they don’t agree with, but they damn sure should be fighting for the things they do agree with. But, yet, we have people like Jason Chaffetz, who sends out this message, minutes after Obama addressed the Joint Sessions of Congress this evening:

That’s right. My representative just sent out a message saying “I have made two big decisions tonight. We are killing the health care bill and we we are killing the mouse in the office.” This, after his Town Hall, which I swear I will blog very soon, where he said that he wasn’t an obstructionist, and he wanted health care reform to happen the right way. This, after Obama invited every one of them, including Chaffetz, to talk to him about their ideas. Chaffetz has never had any intention of considering health care reform.

None.

Those who are against health care reform, while simultaneously refusing to add ideas to the conversation, make me sick. We need health care reform. This conversation is supposed to be about what that reform means. And, as Rep. barney Frank told Rachel Maddow this evening:

The weakness of their argument is a testimony to the strength of ours.

I’m all for open debate, and making Representatives answer for their votes. But, this video shows that Rep. Jason Chaffetz is participating in pre-planned attacks, designed only to badger the Democrats, with no clear purpose or ability to make progress. It’s simple kindergarten bullying. From Politico:

Cantor’s floor staff has created a photo album to help identify the 42 most vulnerable Democrats. The aides send daily e-mails to the members of the attack team and alert lawmakers when these targeted members are speaking on the floor. They even draft quick scripts to help focus the questioning.

This is beyond childish. And it’s embarrassing, since apparently, Chaffetz made an idiot out of himself when it was his turn up, and it didn’t quite turn out the way he wanted. Go, Utah!

As Politico says, about this video:

Of course, these attacks don’t always work out. Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly, a veteran of party politics, quickly turned a Chaffetz challenge against his attacker. The Utah freshman also appeared flustered when Kilroy left the floor recently as he launched another line of questioning about her AIG vote.

Perhaps this is an alternative explanation for Jason Chaffetz blocking me on Twitter. Hearing from me was sometimes a little taste of his own medicine. Oh, and what was that advice Chaffetz had for the President again?

(h/t Glen Warchol)

Newcomer to the United States House of Representatives, Jason Chaffetz, has some balls, all right (emphasis mine):

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, lent tentative support to President Barack Obama’s war policy in Iraq after spending two days in the war-ravaged nation as part of a congressional delegation.

“Thus far he has been pretty good at listening to the generals. I just hope that continues,” Chaffetz said. “My advice to the president is don’t let politics drive the timeline.”

Seriously? Chaffetz (in all of his worldly experience) thinks he’s finally got a chance to advice President Obama about something (yeah, right) and he tells him not to let politics drive him? I mean, because we all know Chaffetz gave a moment’s consideration to anything dealing with the budget that wasn’t politically driven. Uh, huh. Ri-i-i-ight.

Though, maybe this explains why Chaffetz blocked me on Twitter. He was afraid I might be a terr’ist, like all them other lib’rels, and since he was traveling to see the rest of them terr’ists over in Iraq, it was dangerous to keep me on Twitter!

I wonder if Obama laughed him out of the room when he gave that advice, or treated him more like a pesky fly?

Jason Chaffetz has gotten a lot of attention for his use of Twitter since being elected as Congressman for Utah’s 3rd District. I’ve followed him for a while now, and we have had some interesting mini-conversations. I must have offended him recently, because I found out this morning that he unfollowed and blocked me!

If I’m logged into Twitter and go to his page, this is what I see:

I'm only giving updates to friends.

If I log out, I get this:

Full status updates

So, he’s blocked me, but hasn’t actually set his status to private. So, if I really want to, I can still see his updates. Not that it’s important enough to me that I’m going to bother, but I do find it childish that a public official would act this way. He’s making public statements via Twitter, but he doesn’t want me to see them.

I guess I accused him of bitching about things without providing a solution one too many times.

I follow Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Twitter. He sent a link out today to this video with Stephen Colbert:

Amusing, as all Chaffetz-Colbert interaction seems to be. But, the next one has me a bit concerned. Watch him talk about Obama’s budget:

He says that Obama’s budget is “an all time record high”. Except he’s leaving out the fact that Obama isn’t hiding pieces of his budget, as Bush did. He included everything that should have been in there, instead of hiding funding in other bills and pretending they weren’t supposed to be part of the budget.

“It is only by restoring fiscal discipline over the long run that we can produce sustained growth and prosperity. [...] In keeping with my commitment to make our government more open and transparent, this budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go. For too long, our budget has not told the whole truth about how precious tax dollars are spent. Large sums have been left off the books, including the true cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

It feels like Chaffetz is not viewing the situation honestly, and is instead giving in to the kneejerk reaction that there’s no room for compromise between Democrats and Republicans. Perhaps he’s trying to make a name for himself, and secure his seat in the years to come. But, if he saw things wrong with the budget, I think he would have been far more effective to try to work with it, and fix the things he saw wrong, instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. He won’t prevent the budget from being passed, but it’s possible that if he wasn’t so dead set against it, that he might be able to make it better. And that if he didn’t view everything with partisan glasses, he might be an effective Congressman someday.