The Daily Strike-7/11/09-Wouldn't Go As Far As THAT Part IX

Good evening welcome to the Daily Strike. Today, it's another edition of "Wouldn't Go As Far as THAT," where we chronicle the most ridiculous things said in the world of politics. Enjoy, and leave some comments.

3. The bronze this week Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, former Republican whip. The logical extension of Republican's knee jerk opposition to a public option for health insurance coverage is opposition to Medicare, a program that gives millions of seniors access to quality health insurance. Blunt expressed his belief that government should have never gotten involved in the health care marketplace, and cited Medicare and Medicaid as examples of the government "distorting the marketplace." If Blunt really believes that these programs distort the marketplace, I would love to see him make the argument to Missouri voters when he runs for Senate next year. Blunt's spokesman tried to step back on the comments, saying that Blunt thinks goverments are ok "organizing health care" but shouldn't "operate health care systems." I guess operation should be left to private insurance companies, who always have the interests of the American people in mind.

2. Blunt's comments don't even come close to whacko Georgia Republican Representative Paul Broun. Broun took to the House floor in the late hours of yesterday's session to rail against the Democrats' health care plan. He said that the public option "is gonna kill people." His logic was that Great Britain and Canada, who have government run health care, don't have the same respect for life as we do. Ignoring for a moment the enormous logical leap Broun inexplicably makes from "not having respect for life" and "the government health care option killing people," there's another important point to make: Great Britain and Canada have far lower infant mortality rates and higher life expectancy rates than the United States. (Thanks to Media Matters for pointing this out). I know I might sound a little whiny here, and believe me I couldn't care less about what Paul Broun thinks, but has our discourse gotten to the point where you can just arbitrarily say that a policy will kill people, without giving any justification whatsoever?

1. The gold goes to the Supreme Leader of Hypocrisy, Mr. Karl Rove. Rove has joined other old, white Republicans in thinking they can become hip by "tweeting." He wrote this gem of a tweet yesterday:

"darned if I can figure out all these Presidential czars except a giant expansion of Presidential power."

For starters, George W. Bush, as ThinkProgress pointed out, appointed numerous czars, including a “cybersecurity czar,” “regulatory czar,” “AIDS czar,” “bird-flu czar” and “Katrina czar.”(links from ThinkProgress). And Karl Rove should never, ever talk about expanding Presidential power. This is the guy who used his White House position to further his distorted politcal goals, and whose leader is widely considered the great defender of Presidential power in the history of the country.

See you tomorrow night!