|
09/12/2009 Obfuscation or Stupidity?Watching the recent interview of Barney Frank by Rachel Maddow I was struck by something he said that should be considered. He mentioned that perhaps Obummer had simply underestimated the inability of the GQP to do anything in a bipartisan manner and the Repuglican notion of just what bipartisan means. In the same light I ask you to watch the following interchange between Barney and a number of Repuglicans who are either ignorant of the rules of legislative procedure or are just so used to doing as they damned please they can’t understand Barney sticking to the rules.I believe they are so used to this play acting you can’t tell the stupidity from the obfuscation and it all boils down to the same thing —— they don’t believe rules apply to them —— only to those they wish to apply them to. Now, if you watched the video and thought Barney was being rude then read no further. You don’t understand that he is simply sticking to the rules. If you do understand what was going on the question then remains —— were these guys genuinely ignorant of the rules or were they trying to game the system to slow it down or inject language improperly. Keep in mind that if they had been allowed to add amendments improperly, it wouldn’t have been their fault but the fault of the person chairing the proceedings. Now back to the subject of the wingnut shouting “You Lie!” at Obama which was a large part of the discussion between Rachel and Barney. There is absolutely language in the bill Obama was discussing that prevents health care funding to illegal aliens. The bill wingnut Joe Wilson is concerned about was a GQP attempt to prevent health care from being given to illegal aliens. These are actually two entirely different subjects. Before going any further I am compelled to spell out the difference in case there is some confusion. The GQP offered an amendment that said if a person couldn’t provide documentation which would prove they were either American citizens or aliens in America legally —— they would receive no health care. The measure introduced by Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV), which would have required the use of the existing Income and Eligibility Verification System and the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements System, before any care is given. This was voted down specifically because nobody wants to bleed to death or die of a treatable illness or injury simply because they didn’t have the proper documention in time. We have always provided care for people with immediate need for care in this country and we shouldn’t stop. The bill does have provision that no funding will be provided because there is nothing life threatening about taking the time to find documents to pay a bill. Where the GQP shows their true colors is that they do nothing to address the immigration problem so they are obviously simply using the subject to stir up discontent. Otherwise they would address the issue of illegal aliens BEFORE they became illegal aliens needing health care. My personal opinion is that they wish to use the cheap labor of illegal aliens for their own ends and still have a push button topic to rile up their base. So is wingnut Joe either too stupid to understand the distinction or is he (and his political party) intentionally trying to obfuscate the discussion. The same is true with most of the other stupidity regarding how the Repuglicans approach legislating. They continually change the subjects back and forth as if they were all the same. If they want to talk about Immigration, then that should be a separate discussion. The same is true with Abortion. Etc. You can’t have an honest debate or bipartisanship with anyone who simply wishes to stop the discussion altogether by constantly confusing the issues and ignoring the procedures. |