Over at CNN, they’re so desperate to instill a “new tone” in our political discourse following the horrific Tucson shooting, John King is apologizing for a guest who used the phrase “in the crosshairs.” Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, lawmakers (rightly or wrongly) picked up pretty much where they left off, as debate began this week on the Republican motion to repeal Obamacare (and culminated last night, in a successful 245-189 vote). A look back at some of the more colorful remarks made on the House floor during the debate:
“Frankly, I would just say to you, this is about saving lives. Jobs are very important; we created jobs. But even the title of their legislation, H.R. 2, ‘job-killing’ — this is killing Americans if we take this away, if we repeal this bill.”
“People wonder why the language here is so charged, why it’s so incendiary. It’s because of the lexicon that is chosen for the purpose of scaring the American people. Remember what this proposal does — it removes 57 million people with pre-existing conditions from insurance!”
– Rep. Richard Neal (D., Mass)
“To those across the United States who think this may be a symbolic act, we have a message for them: this is not symbolic. This is why we were sent here and we will not stop until we repeal a president and put a president in the White House who will repeal this bill, until we repeal the current Senate, put in a Senate that will listen to the American people and repeal this bill.”
– Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.)
“You know, I want to advise people watching at home who are playing that now-popular drinking game ‘You-take-a-shot-whenever-the-Republicans-say-something-that’s-not-true.’ Please assign a designated driver. This is going to be a long afternoon.”
– Rep. Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.)
“As Virginians, we did not accept the chains of George III nor will we accept the chains of Obamacare.”
– Rep. Morgan Griffith (R., Va.)
Hard to top this one:
“[Republicans] don’t like the truth, so they summarily dismiss it. They say it’s a government takeover of health care — a big lie — just like Goebbels. You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie and eventually people believe it. Like blood libel. That’s the same kind of thing. The Germans said enough about the Jews and the people believed it, and you had the Holocaust.”
– Rep. Steve Cohen (D., Tenn.) – more here.