US Congressman Alan Grayson enrages Right with ?Don?t Get Sick? healthcare gibe
The American healthcare debate has found its latest TV star in a pugnacious Floridian who went to the floor of the House of Representatives with a sheaf of placards summarizing Republican health reform plans in two words: ?Die quickly?.
Alan Grayson, a Democratic congressman, forsook conventional oratory in favor of large flash cards for a presentation that has earned him the wrath of the Right, adulation on the Left and rather more than 15 minutes of fame.
His first card, presented to a thinly attended chamber late on Monday, described step one of what he called the Republican healthcare plan for America as ?Don?t get sick?. Step two was ?And if you do get sick . . .? leading swiftly to step three: ?Die quickly?.
Congressional Republicans condemned the performance as a breach of the decorum of the House and demanded an apology. Their language echoed that of Democrats enraged by an outburst from Joe Wilson, the Republican congressman who accused President Obama of lying during his speech to Congress.
Mr Grayson was undaunted. He denied the other side satisfaction by apologizing to the families of those who he claimed die each year for want of health insurance.
Back in the House Mr Grayson waved a copy of a recent Harvard study that found an alarming correlation between lack of insurance and early mortality, concluding that America?s healthcare crisis costs more than 44,000 lives a year.
?Read it and weep,? Mr Grayson said. ?I apologize that we haven?t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.? He was promptly called on to apologize again for using the word holocaust.
?It was not the best choice of words,? he admitted to The Times last night. ?I?m Jewish. I have relatives who died in the holocaust. [But] this was ?a? holocaust, not ?the? holocaust. We are talking about the deaths of 44,870 Americans a year.?
Mr Grayson, who spent time in hospital as a child because of asthma and nosebleeds, said that he had received overwhelming and categorical support from fellow Democrats since his presentation to the House.
Until yesterday he was unknown to most Americans but not to the Democratic base. He specialized during the Bush years in investigating fraud by government contractors in Iraq.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6857567.ece
The American healthcare debate has found its latest TV star in a pugnacious Floridian who went to the floor of the House of Representatives with a sheaf of placards summarizing Republican health reform plans in two words: ?Die quickly?.
Alan Grayson, a Democratic congressman, forsook conventional oratory in favor of large flash cards for a presentation that has earned him the wrath of the Right, adulation on the Left and rather more than 15 minutes of fame.
His first card, presented to a thinly attended chamber late on Monday, described step one of what he called the Republican healthcare plan for America as ?Don?t get sick?. Step two was ?And if you do get sick . . .? leading swiftly to step three: ?Die quickly?.
Congressional Republicans condemned the performance as a breach of the decorum of the House and demanded an apology. Their language echoed that of Democrats enraged by an outburst from Joe Wilson, the Republican congressman who accused President Obama of lying during his speech to Congress.
Mr Grayson was undaunted. He denied the other side satisfaction by apologizing to the families of those who he claimed die each year for want of health insurance.
Back in the House Mr Grayson waved a copy of a recent Harvard study that found an alarming correlation between lack of insurance and early mortality, concluding that America?s healthcare crisis costs more than 44,000 lives a year.
?Read it and weep,? Mr Grayson said. ?I apologize that we haven?t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.? He was promptly called on to apologize again for using the word holocaust.
?It was not the best choice of words,? he admitted to The Times last night. ?I?m Jewish. I have relatives who died in the holocaust. [But] this was ?a? holocaust, not ?the? holocaust. We are talking about the deaths of 44,870 Americans a year.?
Mr Grayson, who spent time in hospital as a child because of asthma and nosebleeds, said that he had received overwhelming and categorical support from fellow Democrats since his presentation to the House.
Until yesterday he was unknown to most Americans but not to the Democratic base. He specialized during the Bush years in investigating fraud by government contractors in Iraq.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6857567.ece
:grins: