“Fuck you, I got mine.”

No one can ever accuse the Grand Old Party and its media affiliates of loving too much. The disintegrating debate on health care reform continues to highlight the party’s soullessness. Last week, it was (Dr.) Tom Coburn dismissing a weeping constituent who couldn’t afford to care for her brain-injured husband.  This week, it got "better":

Yesterday, an uninsured waitress who has to rely on the emergency room for her children’s medical care, asked boxing historian and Republican harpy, Lynn Jenkins (who already enjoys taxpayer-funded health coverage), why she shouldn’t have an affordable government option, as well. Sure, it seemed like a reasonable question, but when has that ever stopped a Republican from being an obnoxious dick? Buoyed by the hisses, catcalls and boos from the audience, Jenkins instead sneered that the woman should just suck it up and "buy" health insurance with some undefined tax credit, instead of expecting other people to "buy" it for her.  

And in a jaw-dropping exchange, Maria Bartiromo, the CNBC Tube Boob who can certainly afford gold-plated health coverage in the United States, confronted New York Rep. Anthony Weiner about that rotten socialist insurance program also known as "Medicare."

REP. WEINER: No. No. The United States of America, 40 percent of all tax dollars go through a public plan. Ask your parent or grandparent, ask your neighbor whether they’re satisfied with Medicare. Now, there’s a funding problem, but the quality of care is terrific. You get complete choice and go anywhere you want. Don’t look at –

MS. BARTIROMO: How come you don’t use it? You don’t have it. How come you don’t have it?

REP. WEINER: Because I’m not 65. I would love it. 

Way to use that N.Y.U. degree, Maria. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about Social Security.

It was a close call, but the people who heckled the wheelchair-bound woman in New Jersey last week lost out the Grand Prize to M.C. Steele, who mistook his appearance yesterday at Howard University for an audition to play Cruella DeVille:

When the RNC chair took a written question on health care, he blasted the public option, saying that "every time the government gets involved in something it doesn’t work."

 Then came Amanda Duzak, and Steele’s evening just got a whole lot worse.

Duzak, a 23 year old Towson University grad, stood up, against the rules and out of turn.

"My mother died of cancer 6 months ago because she could only afford three of her six prescription chemotherapy medications," she projected. "There are 50 million people in this country who could end up like my mom, suffering or dying because they do not have adequate health care. Everyone in this room and everyone in this country should have access to good health care."

The room woke up and other than those glaring from the front, the applause was wall to wall. But it’s Steele’s response that makes this moment both newsworthy and a terrible comment on his character. After saying that he believed in a mature, honest discussion and not in shouting, Steele said, "People are coming to these town meetings and they’re like [he then shakes]." He then looked and gestured right at Ms. Duzak and said, "It makes for great TV. You’ll probably make it tonight, enjoy it." He then turned his back to her, as the crowd clapped. 

That’s right – the Man o’ Steele turned his back on a woman whose mother had died because she couldn’t afford health insurance. That is the Republican ethos in a nutshell. Bootstrap your way into better coverage or die trying. Ayn Rand would be so very, very proud.

(It was an especially nice touch that a cadre of Young White Republicans for hire filed in to the "Historically Black Universities" student dialogue at the last minute and occupied the first two "reserved" rows of seats in order to provide Steele a wall between himself and the "rabble" of black students. Way to represent, Mr. "I Once Drove Through the Bronx, So I’ve Got Street Cred With the Homies" Steele. You do Rosa Parks proud.)

I already know the answer to this question, but I have to ask it anyway: WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!  

Seriously. 

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