Saruman’s Voice
We’re coming to the wire on health care reform and it’s time for all hands to get into the game. On Friday, my wife called our Cabell County congressman’s office, Nick Jo Rahall, to urge him to vote for the health care bill coming up in the house next week and opponents had so far outnumbered those in favor. That’s the Tea Party illuminati in action. Get the progressive vote in action in response.
Call your Congressional rep’s office today to urge their support of health car reform. For a full list of congressional names and phone numbers, go to Congress.org. Type in your rep’s name and it’ll pop up an information page that includes a phone contact. Don’t know who your representative is? Enter your zip code and it will tell you.
There is no arguing with those whose views on this bill (and Obama) have been fixed in fear and loathing, through being Fox-ified, Becked and Limbaughed. Some have said Fox News is the propaganda arm of the Republican Party. But it’s more correct to say Fox is the PR department of unbridled, unregulated corporate power. The contemporary GOP is just Saruman’s voice whose concealed message mouths the anthem of its corporate masters, “Bottom Line Uber Alles.” If you want a shorthand for how Republicans view your health care troubles, Steven Pearlstein has it:
The most important thing Republicans think is that if there are Americans who can’t afford the insurance policies that private insurers are willing to offer, then that’s their problem — there’s nothing the government or the rest of us should do about it….That was their clear message Thursday [at the White House health care summit]. It was their message during all those years when their party controlled Congress and the White House and they did nothing and said nothing about the plight of the uninsured. And it is clear that they would continue to do nothing if, by some miracle, Democrats were to drop their plan or embark on a more modest approach. For Republicans, the uninsured remain invisible Americans, out of sight and out of mind.
But some on the Left oppose the bill, too, or may be tempted to sit back and not urge their congresspeople and friends to support it as it is not an ideal bill. (more…)
