Xtreme Politics: Grayson remains defiant on 'die quickly' remarks

Republicans are asking for an apology for the antics of Rep. Mike Grayson when he said Republicans want people to "die quickly" when speaking on health reform on the house floor.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Under fire for his claim that the GOP health care plan calls for sick people to "die quickly," Rep. Alan Grayson finally apologized — but not to Republicans.

"Last night, I gave a speech, and I'm not going to recount everything I said, but after that speech, several Republicans asked me to apologize," the Florida Democrat said in a defiant speech on the House floor Wednesday. "I would like to apologize."

Grayson then pointed to a Harvard study that reported more than 44,000 Americans die yearly because they lack health insurance. "That is ten times more than the number of Americans who have died in Iraq and who died in 9/11," he said. "But that was just once. This is every single year. That's right. Every single year. Take a look at this. Read it and weep."

"I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America," he concluded.

CNN: Grayson remains defiant on 'die quickly' remarks

I don't condone what he said, but I like his response to appologize to the people that have died because they didn't have health care. Otherwise, it appears to me that Washington has become a place of Xtreme politics. Just as the controversy of Rep. Wilson shouting "you lie" during Obama's joint session speech, here we are again with another politician behaving badly.

Are they acting out on their own or just reflecting the mood of the country?


Before the conservatives come down too hard on Grayson, keep in mind he was also the same guy that proposed the bill to audit the Fed.

Rep. Mike Grayson Announces Hearing For ‘Audit the Fed’ Bill!

[edit on 9/30/2009 by Hal9000]

[edit on 9/30/2009 by Hal9000]

reply to post by Hal9000


And here I thought it was the democrats that wanted us to die quickly.

I can already hear the character assassins gearing up to strike Grayson down. I personally hope he can weather it.

Originally posted by MMP
I can already hear the character assassins gearing up to strike Grayson down. I personally hope he can weather it.

I love how the Democrats are always the victims no matter what and they never have to apologize or admit wrong doing. Its become so typical and predictable that its down right hilarious to observe.

Here is a video where Grayson just appeared on CNN to backup what he has been saying.

Originally posted by Wimbly

Originally posted by MMP
I can already hear the character assassins gearing up to strike Grayson down. I personally hope he can weather it.

I love how the Democrats are always the victims no matter what and they never have to apologize or admit wrong doing. Its become so typical and predictable that its down right hilarious to observe.

I love comments like this one because they are extremely wild and based off of bias assumption. To say that only 'Democrats' never have to apologize or admit they were wrong is not only ludicrous, it's incredibly naive.

The fact is that character assassination runs rampant in American society these days. Off the top of my head Sarah Palin comes to mind. She is a more recent example. Droves of attack dogs lined up to make her look foolish when she said that the government paying for consultations regarding living wills were creating "death panels" in this country.

Want another example? How about when former President George W. Bush was singing the praises of privatizing Social Security. Shortly after he stopped talking about it the market took a nose dive that it still hasn't fully recovered from. No one forced him to come out say, "You know what guys? Maybe privatizing Social Security and letting Wall Street take care of senior citizen's retirement was wrong."

Would you like an example of character assassination against a Democrat? Remember Howard Dean's "BEE-YAH!" speech when he was running for the 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee? The BEE-YAH! sound bite crushed his chances of becoming President.

Still need more? How about John Kerry and the swift boat ordeal? Did any one make Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and others apologize because at times they mocked Ron Paul during the Republican debates? Don't even get me started on all the political commentators. A very lengthy thread could made discussing the factual errors that right AND left leaning network pundits from CNN, MSNBC and Fox News constantly make. Heck, John Stewart uses it as material for his TV show.

Assertions like one made by Wimbly in my view tend demonstrate a very shut off and closed minded outlook on what's really going on in the American Political system.

[edit on 9/30/2009 by MMP]

[edit on 9/30/2009 by MMP]

Originally posted by Wimbly
I love how the Democrats are always the victims no matter what and they never have to apologize or admit wrong doing. Its become so typical and predictable that its down right hilarious to observe.

Actually, wouldn't the victims here be the ones that Grayson is talking about that died because they didn't have health insurance? Because that is who he apologized to.

I think he is making a valid point. He is saying that while they continue to do nothing in Congress, there are people that could be benefiting from health care reform.

reply to post by Hal9000


Like I said, the left/media always rationalize Democrat's behavior, while constantly attacking Republicans. It happens every single time. Do you think anyone of us could predict you guys would all be excusing this guy? Hes a Democrat of course you are!

[edit on 30-9-2009 by Wimbly]

reply to post by Stormdancer777


Sorry to inform you Stormdancer777, the Republican plan for heath care in this country is as follows.

Don't get sick.

If you happen to get sick and are poor, please, die quickly, preferably in a dumpster so that we can dispose of the body in a less costly manner.

Republicans are aghast at the notion that anyone in this country could possibly make so little that they automatically don't have full health care coverage. They see people that don't make enough money to afford health care as lazy and a blight on society.

It works out like this Stormdancer777, if your a bank that has been hit by your own failed business strategy, your too big to fail, therefore you deserve billions in taxpayer bailouts. If your poor, obviously you don't contribute to society enough and should not be helped.

Isn't it funny how it works here? Even if your fortunate enough to have health insurance, what do these guys do? They refuse coverage, they drop policy holders, they will even retroactively refuse coverage. Yes that's right, they will drop you, tell your doctor they are taking their money back, and stick you with the bill even though your covered by health insurance, (at least that's what you think)

They determine procedures that have been done routinely with great success and deem them experimental. All the while they happily take your premiums and have boards of doctors who they pay to make sure they deny as many people as possible.

After all Health Insurance providers aren't in the business of helping people, they are in the business of making money. They can't make money if they have to pay doctors to preform life saving medicine on people.

They can't make money by spending money on the insured, so they look for every possible way out they can.

They would rather you die quickly than cost them money by making sure you get better.

They would rather you die than hurt their bottom line.

They pay loads of money to make sure that representatives and senators view and vote things their way. They are a lobby group. A large lobby group. They are trying to make sure their version of "the truth" reaches your representatives ear, not yours.

Yes how dare we make it so that you can't be dropped from your policy for a pre-existing condition.

Ever have a yeast infection Stormdancer? (men and women can get them) guess what? If you go to a doctor to have that yeast infection cured you can get dropped from an insurance policy because of your pre-existing condition.

There are 34 countries with better healthcare than the United States.

1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica

Source: www.photius.com...

All these countries have better health care than the United States.

The health care insurance lobby and the GOP would rather you die quickly than cost them more money.

Don't buy into the hype. Think and research for yourself. Look it up. Don't let a pundit tell you what to think. Read it for yourself.

Republicans along with their good buddies the insurance companies don't want you to have access to quality health care, it costs them too much. They would rather you die quickly. That's being fiscally conservative, now let's spend 900 billion dollars on a war with no end, based on lies.

[edit on 10/1/2009 by whatukno]

Originally posted by whatukno
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

Sorry to inform you Stormdancer777, the Republican plan for heath care in this country is as follows.

Don't get sick.

If you happen to get sick and are poor, please, die quickly, preferably in a dumpster so that we can dispose of the body in a less costly manner.

Republicans are aghast at the notion that anyone in this country could possibly make so little that they automatically don't have full health care coverage. They see people that don't make enough money to afford health care as lazy and a blight on society.

It works out like this Stormdancer777, if your a bank that has been hit by your own failed business strategy, your too big to fail, therefore you deserve billions in taxpayer bailouts. If your poor, obviously you don't contribute to society enough and should not be helped.

Isn't it funny how it works here? Even if your fortunate enough to have health insurance, what do these guys do? They refuse coverage, they drop policy holders, they will even retroactively refuse coverage. Yes that's right, they will drop you, tell your doctor they are taking their money back, and stick you with the bill even though your covered by health insurance, (at least that's what you think)

They determine procedures that have been done routinely with great success and deem them experimental. All the while they happily take your premiums and have boards of doctors who they pay to make sure they deny as many people as possible.

After all Health Insurance providers aren't in the business of helping people, they are in the business of making money. They can't make money if they have to pay doctors to preform life saving medicine on people.

They can't make money by spending money on the insured, so they look for every possible way out they can.

They would rather you die quickly than cost them money by making sure you get better.

They would rather you die than hurt their bottom line.

They pay loads of money to make sure that representatives and senators view and vote things their way. They are a lobby group. A large lobby group. They are trying to make sure their version of "the truth" reaches your representatives ear, not yours.

Yes how dare we make it so that you can't be dropped from your policy for a pre-existing condition.

Ever have a yeast infection Stormdancer? (men and women can get them) guess what? If you go to a doctor to have that yeast infection cured you can get dropped from an insurance policy because of your pre-existing condition.

There are 34 countries with better healthcare than the United States.

1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica

Source: www.photius.com...

All these countries have better health care than the United States.

The health care insurance lobby and the GOP would rather you die quickly than cost them more money.

Don't buy into the hype. Think and research for yourself. Look it up. Don't let a pundit tell you what to think. Read it for yourself.

Republicans along with their good buddies the insurance companies don't want you to have access to quality health care, it costs them too much. They would rather you die quickly. That's being fiscally conservative, now let's spend 900 billion dollars on a war with no end, based on lies.

[edit on 10/1/2009 by whatukno]

Good post.

Don't forget that there are 28 other countries ahead of the US in regards to infant mortality too.

14,000 people lose health insurance benefits daily
45,000 die because of lacking health insurance in the US Yearly

The GOP voted against Medicare
The GOP voted against social security
The GOP voted against equal pay for women
The GOP is voting against health insurance reform

Unfortunately, there's nothing new happening here, the GOP brings out the swift boats against what is good for America, they call names such as nazi, socialist, commie.
They attack the presidents nationallity, questioning his American-ness.

The GOP remains silent while children sing praises to Nixon and Bush, but scream "Indoctrination" when they do so for Obama.

GOP senators rail against ACORN for prostitution relations, and the very GOP senator (Vitters), patronized prostitutes on several dates in several cities.

They shout "YOU LIE" during an address to both houses of government, and cry when a congressman says that the GOP want's people to die quickly, while speaking to one house of congress.

The GOP is very adept at victimizing, then claiming they're the victim.

Same old story...... The GOP is the party of hypocrisy and liars.

All this GOP and DNC crap is making me ill. It's not a party thing. It's a humanitarian thing. Both of our so called "parties" are in bed with lobbyists and this will never get anywhere while this corruption and cronyism exists. ALL the bills are weak. None of them address or fix the real issues and they never will with this sitting Congress. Term limits and lobby reform by populace referendum is all that will ever fix this and the 100 other top priority issues in this nation. We've bred ourselves a government by the corporate pigs and we're stuck with it until WE change it.

As for this congress person...a bit theatrical or dramatic. Sure. But the facts are the facts. Over 44,000 people a year in the self-proclaimed number 1 country in the world died when there was no need for them to die. That's a humanitarian crime that rivals what some of you same people who decry it in other places in the world would have a seizure over. It's a hard fact to swallow that the U.S. is not number 1 in a lot of areas, isn't it? And I for one believe that until this and the other areas where we are lacking (education, infant mortality, life expectancy, hunger) are fixed in this country we have no RIGHT to be messing with other people's countries. Period. The World Prime Directive.