House Republicans are dishonest cowards, apparently

You will likely have heard about this: last night, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Florida) stood before the House of Representatives and gave an hour-long speech on the current morbid state of healthcare in America. Well, rather, he tried to give an hour-long speech, but the House Republicans continually tried to cut him off and shut him up, calling for useless measures and actions just to try and waste the remainder of his allotted time. Thankfully, Grayson refused to yield – here’s his account.

I had reserved an hour on the Floor of the House for a "special order." When the hour began, I noted that a Harvard study had concluded that 44,789 Americans die each year because they have no health insurance. I also noted that the Urban Institute had released figures on the number of uninsured in each Congressional district. Observing that every single House Republican had pledged to block health coverage for the insured, I then did the math:

"Alabama District 1, Congressman Jo Bonner, 114 dead."
"Alabama District 3, Congressman Mike Rogers, 88 dead."

I continued for 23 minutes, from Alabama to Ohio. Then the Republicans demanded that I "yield," so they could object and interrupt me. I said no: "My time is limited, and I intend to use it." Flustered, the Republicans then asked my "words be taken down," and threatened to call a roll-call vote, at 8 p.m., on whether I should be sanctioned. This halted the proceedings, as you can see here.

The House staff informed the Republicans that I had violated no rule of the House. The Republicans then insisted on reviewing a recording of my speech, going through it with a fine-tooth comb to see if there was anything objectionable. They found nothing. Then they asked to "ring the bells" before the proceedings resumed, wasting another 15 minutes. Finally, after an hour of Republican stalling, I finished the list:

"Wyoming, Congressman Cynthia Lummis, 73 dead."

For the remainder of his hour, I then read real-life stories from the website namesofthedead.com. These are submitted by people who lost loved ones because they had no health insurance.

Republicans are unable to stand up to criticism. This, over the past year (and since long before still) has become blindingly obvious, to the point where anyone who claims the majority of Republicans have any shred of decency or integrity left are nothing short of deluded. Any party that continually tries their hand at such sneaky, dishonest and distasteful tactics to try and shut someone up when they’re giving a speech on limited time, deserves to be called out on what they are: dishonest and cowardly.

Oh, how I relish the idea of a day wherein America finally eliminates its stupid, inefficient and outdated bicameral system, if only to purge the country of the Republican mindset once and for all. Politics will never be perfect and no country will ever by idealistic, but at least these sorts of dastardly tactics will be wiped away once the cancer that is the Republican Party is removed.

Seriously, name me one good thing Republicans in general have done for America as of late. One. Unless, of course, you yourself are a wingnut and preventing healthcare reform, criminalizing abortion and stem cell research, removing gay rights and generally sinking your country further into its socio-economic hole is what rings your fancy.

Okay, mini-rant over.

(via @todayspolitics)