Alan Grayson and the eulogy for the uninsured.
Author: Sterling Heltzel | Filed under: Life
Last night, a friend of mine who is a moderate-conservative posted about how C-Span is the most thrilling channel on television, which is usually a joke people make often, but he was being entirely serious. Political hooplah is usually always a boring thing to sit and watch, but then in the last few months, Alan Grayson, the Democrat from Florida in the House of Representatives, has absolutely torn stuff apart. He’s entirely controversial and almost a pariah of sorts within the Democratic party, but he represents the true liberals on the left and says everything with a sharp wit and eloquence that only Al Franken can match. It’s beautiful how the noobies in the congress are the ones who know what they’re doing and do it without any fear. Even if it receives backlash, Grayson and Franken are everything that Obama promised to be in the campaign; they shake up the Washington establishment, and in the case of Franken for sure and Grayson a bit, are the smartest guys on capitol hill. Grayson…well, he’s rockin’ the shit in this one. The video of some of the most entertaining television to be on in a long time (that isn’t from NBC’s Community. Best show on TV? Yes.) after the jump.
Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) called for the clerk to take down Grayson’s words, which leadto an adjournment. But then when the House reconvened, Grayson continued on naming the number of dead people because of not having health insurance in each GOP district.
Does this remind anyone of the fantastic opening scene of Aaron Sorkin’s vastly underrated Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip? Embed is turned off, but click it and watch it if you haven’t. Even if you have, watch it. It’s brilliant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc1Ti-ehJ00
Here is an article written by Grayson from The Huffington Post where he writes about “How the Republicans Failed To Cut Off My Healthcare Speech”
Last night, the House Republicans tried, and failed, to squelch a speech that I gave on health care. I intend to vote for the health care bill because that bill saves lives. And I also intend to speak out, as loudly as I can, on behalf of those Americans who cannot speak out, those who have died because they had no health insurance. And the Republicans tried, and failed, to shut me down, to shut down the truth.
Here’s what happened.
I had reserved an hour on the Floor of the House for a “special order.” When the hour began, I noted that a Harvard study had concluded that 44,789 Americans die each year because they have no health insurance. I also noted that the Urban Institute had released figures on the number of uninsured in each Congressional district. Observing that every single House Republican had pledged to block health coverage for the insured, I then did the math:
“Alabama District 1, Congressman Jo Bonner, 114 dead.”
“Alabama District 3, Congressman Mike Rogers, 88 dead.”
I continued for 23 minutes, from Alabama to Ohio. Then the Republicans demanded that I “yield,” so they could object and interrupt me. I said no: “My time is limited, and I intend to use it.” Flustered, the Republicans then asked my “words be taken down,” and threatened to call a roll-call vote, at 8 p.m., on whether I should be sanctioned. This halted the proceedings, as you can see here. The House staff informed the Republicans that I had violated no rule of the House. The Republicans then insisted on reviewing a recording of my speech, going through it with a fine-tooth comb to see if there was anything objectionable. They found nothing. Then they asked to “ring the bells” before the proceedings resumed, wasting another 15 minutes. Finally, after an hour of Republican stalling, I finished the list:
“Wyoming, Congressman Cynthia Lummis, 73 dead.”
For the remainder of his hour, I then read real-life stories from the website namesofthedead.com. These are submitted by people who lost loved ones because they had no health insurance.
They used to call President Harry Truman ‘Give ‘em Hell Harry’. But President Truman said, “I don’t give them hell; I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” I’m telling the Republicans this: Lives are at stake. If you can’t stand the heat on health care, then get out of the kitchen.
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Tags: Al Franken, Alan Grayson, C-Span, Congressman Grayson, Eulogy, house of representatives, public option, uninsured
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