Texas Governor Rick Perry and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley went head-to-head on CNN’s Crossfire Wednesday with the Affordable Healthcare Act as the topic. Rick Perry projects the Texas mythos that everything is bigger and better in Texas and is living proof that this includes stupidity.
Governor O’Malley avoided making that unpalatable observation but did point out in a Washington Post op-ed that titled What Maryland Does Better than Texas, “Texas ranks 49th in high school graduation, 10th in the rate of poverty, and 50th in the percent of residents with even basic health insurance.”
On Crossfire, Perry defended himself from O’Malley’s accusations by pulling on John Boehner: “We’re about giving people freedom.” You’ll remember yesterday that Boehner announced to the world that House Republicans are protecting Americans from health insurance. Perry gives them the freedom of the grave in the guise of freedom of choice. But there really is no choice possible when no health insurance is offered. The only choice is to emigrate to a Blue State where life actually matters.
In the end, Perry summed up his opposition to Obamacare in the following terms:
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Putting “tens of thousands of people on a system that is broken,” Perry said of adding them to Medicaid, is akin to “putting tens of thousands on the Titanic knowing how it’s going to turn out.”
Watch courtesy of CNN:
Republicans like Rick Perry are determined to ignore the facts of Obamacare and will insist on presenting it in the most negative light. Perry’s Texas corporatocracy is great for businesses looking to get rich on the backs of the taxpayer and its workers, and great for corrupt Republican politicians looking to get rich on the backs of grateful corporations; it is not so great for the people of Texas, who, as O’Malley pointed out, suffer on a number of levels.
The simple fact is that Obamacare works. It will create jobs, it will save families money while providing them with needed healthcare, protect their health, and best of all, grow the economy. It is no wonder therefore that Republicans, so anxious to wreck the economy, oppose Obamacare so vociferously.
And if the poll on the Crossfire website is any evidence, Governor O’Malley won yesterday’s debate, as respondents chose Maryland over Texas as a place of residence 53 to 47 percent, which is no surprise really given that only 23 percent of Americans want to do away with Obamacare.
Republicans are swimming against the tide and they know it.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
