Over the weekend, Senators from both sides of the aisle debated the merits of Obamacare with a level of emotion rarely seen in the halls of the U.S. Senate. But one senator took home the prize for the most outrageous comments unbecoming of an elected representative. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) began a floor speech citing a liberal op-ed that referred to the “lunatic fringe,” which appears to lump all sorts of groups in with conservatives. He used this as a catalyst to make floor remarks (seen in the video above) about Obamacare’s opponents saying: “They are desperate to break this president,” Whitehouse continued, “…it is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist.”
Between those tragic thoughts he lumped in members of the Aryan nation, birthers, militias and fanatics with the entire overwhelming majority of Americans opposed to Obamacare. So even though members of his own party were on the fence about the Senate’s health care legislation right up until they got $300 million payoffs, the non-bought-off Americans opposed to it must just hate the President. What other rationale could they have…well…except for the unfunded entitlement expansions, tax hikes, lesser quality care and massive expansion of government control of their lives. But those are small issues compared to their hatred of a politician, right? Right? Wrong.
Let’s be perfectly clear, the only bipartisan agreement in the United States this weekend was against the Senate’s health care legislation. Polls showed opposition ranging from 61% over at CNN to 56% at Rasmussen. These are not fringe elements of society. They hate the policy, not the President. They hate the bill. This is the type of dangerous rhetoric that leaves us with a divided Congress and a divided America. And somebody in the media should ask Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) if he condones such remarks with the same tenacity they would have if the parties in Congress were reversed. Someone should ask each and every one of his colleagues if they agree that all those opposed to Obamacare are members of some radical fringe element.
The funny thing is that Senator Whitehouse’s outrageous comments overshadowed the part of this video where he talks about the “last thrashing throws” of the health insurance industry as it watches its business model die. Right after these comments, he voted to unconstitutionally mandate every American buy private insurance from this “dying” industry. But who could rationally be opposed to that?
