I’m still on the mailing list for my ex-Congressman, Tom Reed (R-NY-23). When I received his latest, titled “My Plan to Stop Obamacare”, I was wondering what he had in mind. Here’s the complete text of the email:
Friend —
Over the past several months, I’ve witnessed the perils of Obamacare. From our neighbors in the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier who are losing their coverage to the destructive regulations being jammed down Americans throats by Washington. We need to stop the Obamacare rollout before its too late!
By constantly fighting Obamacare we are sending a message to the liberal, big government, extremist agenda in Washington that it is wrong for New York, and wrong for the rest of the country.
We are approaching an important fundraising deadline and I need your grassroots support in ensuring a strong showing.
Join our team and help send the message that Obamacare is a bad prescription for America!
Thank you,
Tom
Apparently, Tom’s plan for repealing Obamacare begins and ends with giving him money, but that’s no surprise. “Obamacare must be repealed” is the Carthago delenda est of the Tea Party. It doesn’t matter if you have a plan–you need only utter the words.
Baud
I’m looking forward to 2016 when the rhetoric ratchets up to full anal.
Ash Can
Hey, Christmas and New Year’s are upon us, and he’s got grocery shopping to do. Pony up, rubes — that champagne isn’t going to buy itself.
Napoleon
About a month ago or two one of the local TV newscast here in Cleveland sends a crew to some diner type place where real American’s eat (not chain, inner city, opens at 4:30 am type of place) to do interviews with people about the Obamacare roll out and one of the patrons rolled out that quote and “it would have been better if they accepted Republican ideas”
PsiFighter37
@Napoleon: My follow-up would’ve been, “And would you also like a unicorn jumping over a rainbow, also too?”
Fucking morans. Also, grifters gonna grift. I’m convinced the vast majority of donations to these Teabagger groups go straight into the pockets of the people asking for them and absolutely no further.
debbie
@Baud:
I wish I could remember the name of the Congressman who stood in the Capitol Rotunda opining that Obamacare was the worst disaster in 50 years. Reed is only the latest to join the ranks of the Overreaching Conservatives.
Catherine D.
Hey, Tommy boy is behind on his property taxes (not for the first time, IIRC), so he’s got to raise money.
Hope we can vote the toe-rag out next year, but I bet the DCCC will sit on their hands again.
Scratch
@Baud:
Why does it seem like they always have to describe things they don’t like as being something jammed down their throats?
Grung_e_Gene
Yo, grifters gotta grift man…
How are Republicans going to keep Poor people Poor if they’re being provided with decent affordable healthcare?
Idea! Get them to donate the savings to the Tea Party, who will then enact policies relieving them of any burdensome savings!
The Thin Black Duke
Hey, those pockets aren’t going to pick themselves, y’know.
Elizabelle
I just hope and pray the worm turns, Obamacare is recognized as the successful start it is, and these swine eat those “overturn Obamacare” words.
I hope “Obamacare” gets a surge of Democratic voters to the polls this fall.
Tokyokie
Because I live in a state with a government controlled by assholes like Tom Reed, I have to sign up for health insurance through healthcare.gov. And because I was laid off more than a year ago, thanks to the sort of people whose bidding assholes like Tom Reed do, I’m poor and qualify for financial assistance in purchasing the aforemntioned health insurance. But
I have not been able to do so because the verfication system isn’t working. I’ve tried online and by phone, I’ve tried on different days and at different times, and I’ve answered the same questions the same way close to 20 times, and every time, I get to the same place and get the same response: that the verification system isn’t working and that it should be fixed within 24 hours. Except that it never is. I stayed on hold for 2 hours until past 2 a.m. to get to that point again last night, then got up before 6 this morning to be put on hold for 45 minutes before the phone battery conked out. Now, when I need to be doing holiday baking, I’m sitting with a phone in my ear (the speaker function uses more battery) on hold again (30 minutes and running so far), no doubt to be told that the verification system still isn’t working and that I still can’t sign up, even though I need to do so by today in order to have coverage by January 1.
I’m to the point that I’d happily endure the scourge of Obamacare and the prospect of health-insurance coverage. But I wish something would be done about the scourge of assholes like Tom Reed.
Schlemizel
I know why he is laughing too – because it works. There are a ton of idiots who will gladly buy the rope & tie the knot used to hang them with. This asshole is one happy rope-sellin’ motherfucker
Ultraviolet Thunder
That photo needs more flags. One right over his smug face would be a great improvement.
shelly
You took the words right out of my mouth! ;-)
I love how they keep talking about Obamacare as if it’s something that’s still up in the air. Not that it’s signed into law and upheld by the Supreme Court.
Steeplejack
@Tokyokie:
Can’t you use your phone while it’s plugged in?
Ash Can
@Tokyokie: According to this article, you may be exempt from the deadline, for exactly the problem you’re having. Hang in there.
gogol's wife
@Elizabelle:
My husband keeps saying it will, and he’s never wrong. He sailed serenely through the whole 2012 campaign, never looking at a newspaper, saying, “Obama’s going to win handily.” I have to learn to listen to him.
handsmile
@Tokyokie:
I’m sorry, I was unaware of your situation. I’d simply like to wish you far better fortunes for next year (and an immediate resolution of the verification system problem so that you can get to the baking).
And for all of us, that many more of that “scourge of assholes” join Tom Reed in becoming ex-Congressmen next year.
Patrick
Can I assume Mr Reed sent out similar e-mails prior to the ACA when people were losing their coverage due to pre-existing conditions? I am assuming Mr Reed was even more outraged then since there were many people that lost their coverage then. Or is this about the black guy again?
Tokyokie
@Steeplejack: I’m using the landline because I’m watching my cellphone minutes, and it needs to be plugged into the base.
@Ash Can: I hadn’t seen that, but I would hope that my struggles would be considered a “good faith” attempt.
El Caganer
@Napoleon: “And which ideas would those be?” “All of them, Katie.”
PaulW
Do you mean that if I went into a Tea Party gathering, just said “Obamacare must be repealed”… they will hand me money right out of their pockets? Just like that?!
DAMN. I gotta get in on this racket…
Mustang Bobby
@Scratch:
Probably because they’re all tops and don’t like to flip.
gbear
Could he have possibly stuffed more worn out talking points into that first paragraph?
MattF
Still, there’s a whole sentence in that email that doesn’t have the word ‘Obamacare’ in it, so there’s room for improvement.
Tokyokie
@gbear: He left out “job-destroying.”
Patrick
@Tokyokie:
He also left out “Benghazi”
Tokyokie
@Patrick: Guess he needs money to pay for editors.
The Dangerman
It’s too late. Shut the fuck up.
gbear
@Tokyokie: ‘job destroying’ was a definite miss. It would have felt so at home there.
Villago Delenda Est
@shelly:
The Onion covered this 15 years ago….
Elizabelle
@gogol’s wife:
I think your husband is right.
The MSM and conventional wisdom chatter is the last to know these days. They pretty much talk to each other.
Let’s all report back after our holidays with family and friends who are not Obots.
(Once we’ve sobered up, no?)
gogol's wife
@Elizabelle:
Yes, the friends I’ll see include a firedoglake type or two.
Hill Dweller
@Elizabelle: The Village hates Obama because they know he has zero respect for them. Consequently, they’ll keep trying to destroy him.
My hope is the economy gets markedly better next year, which will help the President. Moreover, we’re coming out of what should be the roughest patch for ACA. Once we get through the rollout and settle into a new norm, PO can hammer Republicans for not expanding Medicaid and increasing the minimum wage.
maya
Reed may have an excellent point for his constipuacy: Obamacare does not cover brain rot. They definately will not be covered.
MattF
Looks like NYers may have the opportunity to vote against The Donald:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/12/23/us/ap-us-trump-ethics-complaint.html?hp
Green with envy here in MD.
SiubhanDuinne
@handsmile:
I believe Tom Reed is still a Congressman, just apparently no longer dpm’s Congressman (redistricting, or maybe mixie moved to a different CD, don’t know).
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
The best of preacher type grifting, seamlessly adapted by the pols. The meld is complete.
Xecky Gilchrist
destructive regulations being jammed down Americans throats by Washington. We need to stop the Obamacare rollout before its too late!
OBAMACARE STOLE MY APOSTROPHES!
rikyrah
grifters – the entire lot of them
Chris
Yes, but both sides do it, and Democrats are worse.
/MSM
NCSteve
Just a reminder: there was, in fact a plan behind “Carthago Delenda Est.” 1. Pick a fight with nation we rendered defenseless in the last war by continually moving the goalposts each time our unreasonable demands are met until we find a demand they literally cannot meet. 2. Invade. 3. Slaughter, rape and pillage. 4. Sell every last survivor into slavery. 5. Burn. 7. Apply salt to taste.
The Roman Republic’s analogs of McCain, Graham, Cruz, and Cheney got there way by staying relentlessly on message, month after month, stoking irrational paranoia until it sounded like reasonable concern and pushing for a morally indefensible course of action until it became elite CW.
Mining Roman history for anecdotes that can be cast as analogies has been a pastime in the Western world since the 1700s. But we’d do well to consider the danger presented by relentlessly on message right wing assholes.
scott (the other one)
@Hill Dweller:
True, but he’s at least polite about it. Bush openly disdained them…and they lapped it up, begging for more scraps of derision from The Deciderer™. Because, as always, IOKIYAR.
Roger Moore
Maybe you know why he’s laughing, but the helicopters aren’t laughing.
Gravenstone
@scott (the other one): So they prefer active humiliation and degradation, rather than icy scorn and disdain.
Peter VE
Denique deletam Carthaginem. Unfortunately, Reed will be with us for the near future….
Roger Moore
@Gravenstone:
They’re willing to take hazing from an obnoxious frat boy, but not willing to let one of Those People treat them as if they’re inferior.
Chris
@PsiFighter37:
Frankly, that’s actually a good thing as long as they’re just picking each other’s pockets. Money that could be spent usefully in their political campaigns is instead being pissed away. Heck, it’s been said that that was a big part of what screwed over Romney, that so much of his campaign was actually just a giant grift machine, and I wouldn’t be surprised.
@gogol’s wife:
I certainly hope he’s right.
I’m not usually an optimist, but I have to say I was pretty “serene” in the 2012 election starting as far back as summer of 2011 when the Republican primary was in full swing. Romney was such a fucking gaffe machine, so universally loathed even within his own party (hence the never-ending parade of Not-Romneys), and yet it was clear even then that he would be the candidate. Between that and the teabagger wave having crested and the public getting tired of them already, I was fairly confident in Obama’s chances, too. The man is blessed in the choice of his enemies.
GRANDPA john
@Chris: Like him, I was never worried. I read 2 sites for my info, Sam Wangs Princeton site, and 538. they told me all I needed to know
comment locally
The irony is…. that the southern tier counties of NY are (not so) affectionately known as Pennsyltucky. Probably the area that will benefit the most from ACA
pragmatic idealist
How do you send a message to an agenda?
daverave
I am shocked, shocked I tell you that this moran didn’t spell “losing” as “loosing”
Trollhattan
When did Rob Ford begin spelling his name “Tom Reed”?
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
Looks like that fat fucker is spending all of his Stop Obamacare dough on doughnuts.
Elizabelle
Mr. Reed looks cheery, but I am thinking
Ho Ho Ho
We’re sending you Home.
After the 2014 midterms.
Please, FSM.
Nancy
He used to be my congress critter too. Douche describes it all pretty well.
Ken T
I think you’re all being unfair to Mr. Reed. You have to look at it from his point of view to understand his logic. You see, if enough people send him enough money, then HE will never have to sign up for Obamacare. So for him, that’s just as good as it being repealed. See? Perfectly logical.
ericblair
@Chris:
That was my favorite part of the whole shitshow. Romney’s campaign was the perfect reflection of the goopers’ relentless self-interested pursuit of wealth, which ended up the way us commies though it would, with a bunch of thieves and liars ripping each other off until the whole rotten carcass collapsed.
I think Obama has a talent for driving his opponents nuts, since it happens every time. Either that, or he’s the luckiest sonofabitch on the planet, and if he is, I want to be on his side. Better lucky than smart on this planet, anyway; even better if you can manage both.
Mnemosyne
@ericblair:
As I always like to point out when people say Obama is “just lucky,” Luck favors the prepared. It doesn’t matter how “lucky” you are if you’re not prepared to take advantage of the lucky breaks that you get.