In the Wyoming state legislature, 10 congressmen and three senators have co-sponsored “The Health Care Choice and Protection Act.” The intent? To make it a felony to implement the health-care reform law — which is, you’ll remember, the official law of the land.
***Many of my friends on the right have legitimate technocratic differences with the Affordable Care Act. But many of the politicians they’ve stood with have not made a legitimate case against the bill. Rather, they’ve taken a bill that echoes past legislation Republicans have introduced and called it, as Sen. Jon Kyl did, “a stunning threat to liberty.” They’ve told their supporters, as Sen, Chuck Grassley did, that they’re right to fear that the health-care bill “determines if you’re going to pull the plug on grandma.” This is not merely legislation that they have some technical or philosophical disagreements with. It is, in the words of Speaker John Boehner, “a monstrosity.”
Given the extremism of the rhetoric at the top, is it any wonder that there is incredible fear trickling down to the grass roots? If those are the stakes, then of course criminalizing any implementation of the bill makes sense. Frankly, if those are the stakes, then violent resistance might be required.
Those aren’t the stakes, of course. They’re just the words. And words slip sometimes. Things come out too angry, or too quickly, or too sharply. I’ve had my share of experience with this. But words matter. And the Republican Party hasn’t been slipping up: It’s been engaged in a concerted campaign to scare the population into opposing health-care reform. That may be good politics, but it can have bad consequences.
I’m pretty sure this bit of candor qualifies as a Moore Award, since look how Ezra doesn’t think about the feelings of others and might ruin civil conversation!
Felonious Wench
I personally am pissed as hell this came from Wyoming and not the Texas Lege.
AAA Bonds
That’s actually frightening. Like, in the whole, remember-who-else-we-called-clowns way.
quaint irene
Sweet Jesus. I would truly love to give this asshole something real to cry about!!
AAA Bonds
You squarehead legal eagles should be able to answer: what should we know about to understand what this would mean in court?
ruemara
Words fail me. But a well aimed meteor won’t.
J.W. Hamner
I’m against statehood for D.C. because… well, for many reasons that are beside the point… but if we get rid of Wyoming there’d be 2 Senators up for grabs. Just sayin’.
beltane
I am all in favor of making it a crime to provide health care to Republicans. If they are true rugged individualists, they can heal themselves by scourging for medicinal herbs and grinding them in a mortar and pestle, just like the original Tea Party Patriots did. And if they are Christian flavored wingnuts, they should find solace in the knowledge that their prayers are enough: faith heals all.
Pete
Really? Nullification? That is sooooo 1832
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
@beltane: How many of those new tea partying congresspeople have declined their government-provided health benefits so far? I’ve heard of one.
Suffern ACE
So, will they issue an arrest warrant for Jan Sibelius?
Quicksand
@AAA Bonds:
As an attorney, I can say that some of the milder terms I would use to describe this are “idiotic” and “asinine.”
So you might want to familiarize yourself with some of that terminology, and perhaps a few synonyms.
Oh yeah, and “preemption.”
Villago Delenda Est
@beltane:
Surely (or Shirley, if you prefer…) you’re not implying that the Rethuglicans do not have the courage of their convictions, are you Beltane?
I mean that would be, um, shrill!
General Stuck
This is serious business, and it is so primal to many wingers, nothing else much matters right now, than to destroy this law being HCR. There are several parts to the increasing myopic rage from the right, depending on where they live, and prevailing wingnuttery style for that region. In the west it is mostly libertarian sensibilities that are offended. In the south, it goes much deeper into more basic and long standing grievance from northern rule and authority. It doesn’t soothe their rage that it was the first black president that foisted the new HC system on them. And for other right leaning voters scattered around the country it is more legitimately about role of government in their belief system, and the spending they fear, and some other odds and ends.
But for all of them, whether they are conscious of it or not, it is about loss of control. Political control of the country they fear most. Being that a grateful nation from receiving Health Care security, will turn to liberal ideology and the dem party that delivered it, in a big way and squeezing out conservatism via reduced electability of the traditional party of delivery for that world view. And then there is the xenophobe factor that increases their paranoia,
BDeevDad
@Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people): The only one I heard declined because he had healthcare as a military veteran so he was still on the government teet.
Wag
The WY Legislature needs to take a point from the GOP House and formaly state where in the Constitution states are allowed to make Federal law a felony
Bob Loblaw
@J.W. Hamner:
That’s not how Senate seats work, like at all. Just sayin’. Lulz.
MobiusKlein
Better Idea – merge DC into WY
stuckinred
Cotton Bowl?
kdaug
Is it too soon to hope for the Yellowstone caldera to blow?
Omnes Omnibus
@Quicksand: Fuckwitted and dumb-as-all-get-out also come to mind.
The Dangerman
Fixed.
Edit: I’m serious; we have the pills to keep people alive well after their brains cease functioning properly (and I’m not talking Alzheimers or similar dementia).
Mike in NC
So is that pretty much the entire state legislature? I mean, this is a state with so few actual people living in it that it has two Senators and only one freakin’ Representative. A job that somebody as socially and emotionally handicapped as Dick Cheney once held. For five terms.
From Dickapedia:
lacp
@Pete: Probably the highest moment of Andrew Jackson’s presidency, after he fucked up much, that he indicated to the nullifiers that he would seriously fuck up their shit if they didn’t back down.
kdaug
@The Dangerman: Hell, Cheney is still “alive” and he has no pulse.
El Cid
Suggested amendments:
(1) Private health insurance accounts and holdings may only be transacted in gold;
(2) Insurers must offer generous deductions for the stockpiling of survival seeds, MRE’s, dried foods, and ammunition;
(3) If anyone related to the ACA (HCR) crosses the threshold of someone’s private property, full deadly force is authorized.
Suffern ACE
So when Justice invariably files suit, do we get to have fundraising ads imploring us to help stand with the citizens of Wyoming from right wing organizations?
elle
What baffles me is that, I’m pretty certain a lot of these repblicans and tea party types will and currently benefit from the health reform bill
So why oppose it so vehemently? I seem to remember a former candidate being pissed on for saying something about the other side using God and guns as red herrings, and people consequently voting against their own economic interests…
The Dangerman
@kdaug:
Hell and Cheney in the same breath; Freudian slip or intentional?
Omnes Omnibus
@El Cid: Chickens. What about trading chickens for health care or is that only valid in Nevada?
El Cid
@Omnes Omnibus: Only gold is real money. It’s okay to use chickens for Health Savings Accounts, because you can save money by eating chicken.
ruemara
@elle:
If they benefit from it, then it is not going to get credit for being of benefit. Once you demonize it, you can’t just slap some angel wings and glitter on it.
Omnes Omnibus
@El Cid: These Teabagger accounting rules are confusing for a simple elitist like me.
The Dangerman
Just listened to Rove and O’Reilly discuss HCR repeal; they said that they needed 4 Democrats to flip for the repeal bill to pass the Senate. Have these dumb fuckers forgotten you need 60 votes to get anything through the Senate or are they just willfully lying to their audience? Both is an option, I suppose.
kdaug
@The Dangerman: It beckons…
Tattoosydney
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s just the vibe of the thing.
kdaug
@The Dangerman: And then there’s this wacky “pen” thing.
Forget what it’s called, but I think it starts with a “V” and ends with an “O”.
Calouste
@The Dangerman:
It takes 60 votes for Democrats to get anything through the Senate, not for Republicans. And wasn’t there some kind of fillibuster reform going on?
Omnes Omnibus
@Tattoosydney: Good god, I have felt like that in a courtroom. Not a good feeling. I have hearing coming up and I am now contemplating arguing the vibe of the thing.
FormerSwingVoter
@elle: They oppose it so vehemently because they were told, over and over and over again by people that they trust, that HCR would literally result in the murder of every old person they’ve ever loved.
Roger Moore
@El Cid:
Or by barter. Remember, we’re supposed to pay for our health care with chickens.
The Dangerman
Just happened again; Beck was on O’Reilly saying that they needed 4 Democrats to send it to the President (where it will obviously be vetoed). Do they really expect it to pass the Senate without a Filibuster? These fuckers are misleading their stupid audience.
Tattoosydney
@Omnes Omnibus:
Scalia would accept that argument as long as by the vibe, you mean “what I think a grumpy George Washington would have thought the Constitution meant”.
El Cid
@Roger Moore: See above.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tattoosydney: Well, it is more succinct than, “It is a remedial statute and should, therefore, be interpreted liberally in order to suppress the mischief and advance the remedy the statute was intended to provide,” which is an argument I will be making.
Dollared
JC, why I loves ya and why I hate the Obama “treat your opponents as acting in good faith” thang:
“Clowns” is so much more accurate and befitting the target than those 250 earnest words from Ezra the Co-Opted.
Nicely put and don’t ever change.
RareSanity
@General Stuck:
It is for this reason that I almost feel pity for teabaggers. I mean, seeing almost everything they defined their lives by, seemingly, and unstoppably, crashing down in front of them, must be traumatic.
However, I look at the pure hate in which this frustration is expressed. The selfishness of, I got mine, screw you, and any pity I have just disappears.
Now, the southern teabaggers can eat a bag of dicks, it’s about race and “the south rising again” to them. But, the more midwestern, good at heart types, what does it feel like to begin to realize, that for the first time in this country’s history, you don’t have absoute power, as a white person anymore?
I’m a black guy, I have never known what it feels like to live a life of “white privilege”. I’m well equipped to deal with changes, especially when they help to level the playing field.
What does it feel like to have lived your whole life, and not realized, that the playing field has always been tilted in your favor?
amk
Majority of americans are stupid. They deserve what they wrought on body politic.
Omnes Omnibus
@RareSanity:
I would say, if you are a remotely decent person, the first reaction is surprise that the world is not as fair as you always thought it was. Then, you say, “That doesn’t seem right,” and you try to broaden your outlook. At which point, you hopefully find something however small that you can do to make sure that other people have the rights you grew up with.
The Republic of Stupidity
And it would the legislators of Virginia have upped the ante in the Crazy Sweepskates…
They’re proposing to issue their own money… just in case the Fed implodes
Davis X. Machina
@Roger Moore: It’s nearly impossible to gild a chicken — they keep moving.
Davis X. Machina
@Calouste: The problem is there are three national parties represented in the Senate.
There are the Democratic senators who are Democrats, the Democratic senators who are Republicans, and the Republican senators who are Republicans.
This makes getting 60 senators easy for the Republicans, and hard for the Democrats.
(When I was a lad, there were Republican senators who were Democrats — Ed Brooke, Jake Javits, John Chafee — but they’re all gone.)
AAA Bonds
@Quicksand:
I mean, yeah, but I was hoping for a more detailed answer than “preemption”, as in, is there any similar state law in relevant cases that we should know. No one thinks Wyoming would win here, certainly not the people who are sponsoring the bill.
I am just curious as to how this might play out in court; what the arguments might be.
Omnes Omnibus
@Davis X. Machina: Four parties. You forgot Republican senators who are fucking loons.
agrippa
General Stuck is right. At the end of the day, it is about loss of control.
The GOP does not have a good idea of what they want to do with power and control. But, they do not want those other persons to have power and control. Basically, it is paranoia driven by fear and anger.
There seems to be an inchaote realization that ‘things’ have just not worked out.
AAA Bonds
@Omnes Omnibus:
Or, rather, both parties can’t balance their right wings. It’s pretty spooky.
Davis X. Machina
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s just the subset consisting of all the members of the original set. My math chops aren’t good enough to tell if that’s actually considered a separate entity….
RareSanity
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well said.
Of course, it would help if “conservative leaders”, that know better, tried to help those that are frustrated instead of saying, “you’re right, it’s the brown people!”, just to get elected/make a buck.
Omnes Omnibus
@AAA Bonds: There really aren’t any. Preemption pretty much covers it. Or the Supremacy clause. This bill is sheer silliness.
Uloborus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah. Rather than worry I’m losing ground, I wonder how everyone else can be lifted up to my level.
Omnes Omnibus
@RareSanity:
My wife has a saying that fits here: “If Grandma had wheels, she would be a tram.” It works better with the Romanian accent.
Omnes Omnibus
@Uloborus:
I have always wondered what went wrong inside the people who see it the other way.
Uloborus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, I know a FAIR amount about developmental psychology, behavioral theory, and the psychology of abuse victims. I also grew up in The South. If you grow up surrounded by bullies and passive-aggressives and the *only* dynamic you see throughout your formative years is that people take any gift you give them and use it as a weapon to hurt you more, you can build up a huge, instinctive distrust and territoriality. You know somewhere, somehow, that other people getting something good will hurt you. Plus, if you’ve been through that much of this kind of crap you’re most likely seething with hate.
Think of people living in a society that *never stops being high school*.
Omnes Omnibus
@Uloborus: Sounds like a living hell to me, and I didn’t even mind high school.
WereBear
@Uloborus: Jiminy! You’ve nailed it.
This is why, when people refer to High School as “The Best Years of Their Lives” I fall down and Have Problems.
a) Christ on a Rubber Crutch. You mean it’s downhill from there?
b) The High Point of your life is when it was at it’s most superficial and ridiculous? Good luck with that.
and,
c) You have got to be f)(&*$#(& kiddin’ me.
Redshirt
I’ve joined the school which states: We all deserve whatever we get. We make our fate, and if this is our fate, so be it.
Sucks though. It’s the last gasp of Dark Age stupidity – can it win?
Davis X. Machina
@Redshirt: It may not win but it will cover the spread.
Fuzz
What worries me about HCR is that we now have a politicized judiciary, at both the highest level and the appellate courts. If the case against it being brought by one of those AGs makes it to the Supreme Court, they’ll repeal the whole bill. If you look at the SC as it is right now they constantly fall right in line with the GOP.
lllphd
yeah, i’d love to see all these suckers secede, the whole southern slave-mentality lot of ’em.
i can see the history books now: at the turn of the millennium, several states attempted to secede from the union because they did not want to participate in legislation that provided healthcare for all citizens. the US military narrowly defeated an army of aging (and grossly unhealthy) teabaggers, as well as contracted mercenaries funded by the insurance industry and china. when the dust finally settled, tens of thousands were slain, the infrastructure was essentially destroyed, the economy fell into a deep depression, and the victors fought bitterly in congress over whether or not the confederate states should be converted to a permanent prison with walls along the borders. the plan was dropped due to cost; confederate citizens were instead forced to wear teabag flag diapers. (stunning prices are paid for these memorabilia, even used ones.)
Redshirt
@Davis X. Machina: Good enough/bad enough to lose some money/sanity.
It’s funny how we’ve all forgotten about nuclear terror, but it’s still there, and all it takes, as they used to say, is one nuke to ruin your day. Let us pray a Wingnut henceforth does not get his/her finger on the button. For Jeebus sake!
The Dangerman
@Fuzz:
I don’t see the Court opening up that can of worms; they may be politicized, but they aren’t stupid. Going after the Commerce Clause sounds unseemly.
gex
It as race between demographic change and how long we keep the elderly alive via Medicare so they can screw us over and over again.
Uloborus
@WereBear:
Well, even the smartest teenagers have only begun learning to overcome instinct with rationality. At the same time, they’re experiencing hormone-based mood swings and are making their first attempts at independence, which almost immediately becomes an obsession with where they are on the social hierarchy. They act like dogs. Weakness is attacked automatically. If you have no obvious weaknesses or you’re in a particularly good environment you can cruise through that okay, but for a loooot of people it’s a bad time.
Too much of the South never stops being like that, at any age.
Fuzz
@The Dangerman:
Good point (I guess now we can all see one of the reasons I failed the bar this summer, forgetting the commerce clause).
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
@The Dangerman: Until we get the first Regent University School of Law graduate on the supreme court, you’re probably right.
The Dangerman
Personally, I can’t imagine the Teatardists, after all the screaming of “unconstitutional” by the Usual Suspects, having the highest court in the land saying it IS constitutional. Poor dumb fuckers…
Firebert
I would prefer that Republicans not be referred to as clowns, as that is an insult to clowns.
Joseph Nobles
Would this idiotic bill if passed also mean that anyone in Wyoming seeking to get a student loan directly from the federal government will have committed a felony? I don’t see any exemption of the student loan part of the ACA reconciliation bill in the language of the Wyoming bill. Fucking lunatics.
And I expect the repeal bill to disappear in committee. Or how about this – what if Harry Reid and the Democrats fucking called the GOP’s bluff, vacated the repeal bill, put Sanders’ Medicare-for-all bill in verbatim, passed it, and sent it back to the House? Concur with that Senate amendment, you numbskulls!
P.S. There are 60 House members and 30 Senators in the Wyoming legislature. So that’s 17% of the Wyoming House and 10% of the Wyoming Senate offering this bill.
donquijoterocket
Remember this is Wyoming which simultaneously prides itself on being conservative enough to be pretty much as Mark Twain once said of Kentucky:When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Kentucky, because everything there happens 20 years after it happens anywhere else.” And being first in women’s suffrage although as a territory and not a U.S. state. Honest mister I just found the hat and I was only trying to help that sheep across this here fence(unofficial mottos of the state).