I think at this point, we all know where each other stands on the Health Care debate, so I'm not even going to attempt to sway anyone here on the merits or disadvantages of the bill. But what I would like to do is remind people of just what we should be focusing on instead of cannibalizing our own. The GOP continues to be the party of intolerence, arrogance, and just plain mean spiritedness.
Rachel Maddow via Rawstory catches Graham on the Senate floor actually citing Blacks as a disadvantage for his state. Really. Just unbelievable stuff:
Throughout the nation there are going to be thousands more people enrolled in medicaid and every state except one is going to have to come up with matching money," Graham remarks. "I have 12 percent unemployment in South Carolina. My state's on its knees. I have 31% African-American population in South Carolina."
"We've got it tough," he adds. "We're on our knees. 12 percent of our people are unemployed and 31 percent of our people are black."
Graham later says: "My state, with 30 percent African-American citizens, a lot of low income people in South Carolina is going to cost my state a billion dollars, that's the same old stuff that I object to. That's not change we can believe in. That's sleazy."
Really? This is your argument against Health Care Reform? Because your state has a higher percentage of Blacks than other states? And yet you get all upset when people say say South Carolina is a racist state. I don't think I need to rehash the history of South Carolina politics over the last 100 years or so, but suffice it to say, it ain't been pretty where matters of race are concerned.
And this just reiterates the criticisms of the GOP being out of touch and concerned only with the fiscal aspect of legislation and not the human aspect.
Here's the video from the Rachel Maddow show last night: If you can't view the video, you can find it here: http://rawstory.com/...
Graham will probably say his statement was "taken out of context", but Rachel discovers he made the same argument not once, but twice:
"The argument here appears to be that Sen. Graham believes it is sleazy to expect a state with lots of black people in it, to have health reform," Maddow says. "Because you know, black people. Maybe he meant something other than what it seemed like with those remarks. But it should be noted he did use the same inexplicable argument twice. Once on the Senate floor and once on The Today Show. We contacted Sen. Graham's office today for an explanation. We'll let you know when and if we hear back."
This is the kind of thing we should be talking about, because if don't, the media sure won't because Dems fighting Dems is a much more interesting story to them. Especially if they are attacking the President. So let's get it together folks. A lot of GOP shenanigans have been ignored because of this infighting. It's GOT TO STOP!.
**UPDATE**
According to statehealthfacts.org, the percentage of Non Elderly Whites on Medicaid is more than Non Elderly Blacks. Not by much, but this makes Graham's statement even more atrocious.