The always aureate Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D., Texas) set a pretty high standard for Paul Ryan budget demagoguery on the House floor today:
The Republican budget will destroy Medicare…
There is an effort to bury this program that has kept the grandmothers and granddads and America’s children alive for them to be able to see their grandchildren grow up because they’ve had good healthcare. Where is the morality?
I just want to paint the picture of ‘no room at the inn:’ ‘Lights out, doors wide open and the drumbeat playing as people are being rolled out of nursing homes in wheelchairs, with crutches, some on beds.
Maybe we can just imagine the tragic scenes of Hurricane Katrina, when nursing home residents were pouring out of nursing homes in the wake of the disaster…Well let me tell you we’ve got Hurricane Ryan, and there’s a disaster coming.
Is this the “serious conversation” President Obama had in mind?
ah, the congresswomaaaaaaaaaaaaan never fails to bring the absurd and over the top.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMan, she's always good for laughs!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat's her obsession with hurricanes???
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSounds about like Teddy on Bork. Good, clean lies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere are many people who will believe her.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHer metaphor is inane; her syntax and grammar are excruciating. Is she literate? Does she even have an average IQ? This woman is so dumb she makes me cringe. My Jack Russell is more intelligent than she is.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think we should just let them continue to make these asinine comments and let everyone see them in all their glory
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes, I believe this is *exactly* the kind of conversation President Obama has in mind. I can't wait to hear him describe his straw man this time around: "Some say, do something about the impending collapse of the Medicare system or the domestic economy. Some say, we have to make a choice, that it's one or the other. *I* say, let's do both!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Lights out, doors wide open" is a good synopsis of Rep. Lee.
First of all, dear Rep. Lee, Medicare only pays for short-term rehab at "nursing homes" which can also be sub-acute rehab. It is MEDICAID that will pay for long term nursing home stays dependent on income and catastrophe...which brings me to that word, which is a synopsis for the Democrat Party.
Katrina card played (aka race card). Rinse. Repeat.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D., Texas)= there is no there there.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat a bimbo.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSheila Jackson-Lee: Living proof that willful idiocy is no barrier to a successful career in American politics.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePlease don't insult bimbo's. They don't know what they are saying. This crazy Congressperson actually plans the things that come out of her mouth! What is funny is that she gets more press nationally than she does here locally. Only if there is a funeral or racial issue of some import, does she get any face time here. The bad thing is that she will probably never have a serious challenger and no R will ever get elected in her specially carved-out district. It is so sad as I travel around the country occasionally and people start asking about the funeral lady with the crown weave. How the great state of New York ever let her go, I'll never know. Maybe she could go back since Rush left town!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePlease don't insult bimbo's. They don't know what they are saying. This crazy Congressperson actually plans the things that come out of her mouth! What is funny is that she gets more press nationally than she does here locally. Only if there is a funeral or racial issue of some import, does she get any face time here. The bad thing is that she will probably never have a serious challenger and no R will ever get elected in her specially carved-out district. It is so sad as I travel around the country occasionally and people start asking about the funeral lady with the crown weave. How the great state of New York ever let her go, I'll never know. Maybe she could go back since Rush left town!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes, this is what Obama had in mind. This is exactly the kind of rhetoric he wants Democrats using. You didn't think he meant for them to be serious, do you?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePlease...Congresswoman Jackson-Lee is a self-described queen...and she expects to be treated like one!!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnecdotal, but true.
In the scope of my employment I deal with Medicare and Medicaid liens. Today I got a "case status" letter from Medicaid, via a third party contractor, for a file that was closed two years ago.
Despite our numerous requests to Medicaid for information prior to closing this specific file, none was forthcoming. As I mentioned, Medicaid farms out its collections out to third party contractors, which are woefully behind. It doesn't surprise me. This third party contractor is far from the first separate entity with which we have had to deal when it comes to Medicaid.
But hey! They finally caught up to this person, two years later.
That's actually good news. We got a "case status" letter from Medicare four years after the man in question had died.
If anyone thinks this incredibly inept system will improve any time soon, regardless of what either party proposes . . . step away from the bong.
Medicare and Medicaid are so screwed up it would take years to figure out what's going on NOW, yet alone what will "change" after millions more are "covered" or what systems are "adjusted" via legislature.
It's a bunch of BS, a big ol' steamin' pile.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI dunno, I think hers is a pretty good image to convey what will happen if Ryan’s plan became law. It wouldn’t go down that dramatically, but that’s why the scene is useful. It dramatizes the reality, kind of like the way Reagan gave us images of what welfare cheats looked like, to help us get mad about the injustice and support change.
So her imagery may be overly sensationalistic for some — though given the tone of the vitriol here, I suspect nothing Sheila Jackson Lee could say would earn her these commenters’ simple respect as a human being — but in essence she’s right. The vouchers in Ryan’s plan will cover less than half the cost of adequate health care for seniors. That means much less access to expensive care like nursing homes, massive burdens on families, and earlier deaths for many.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCareful, guys, I think she's gonna achieve escape velocity pretty soon . . .
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseryan has a serious and adult proposal. the dimocrat party has no plan, no rejoinder, and only sophomoric fools like this snake-mean woman to reply.
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