GOP and teabaggers are beside themselves that their hateful rhetoric might actually have to go before voters

Apparently, the near impossible has happened, and the teabaggers may actually establish themselves as a third political party and obtain ballot status in November. But Republicans and the alleged “leaderless” teabaggers are up in arms over it.

Apparently, Mark Steffek, from Reese in Tuscola County, who described himself as head of the party that turned in the petitions, turned in petitions on Wednesday with almost 60,000 signatures, according to the Detroit Free Press, well above the required 38,013 signatures needed to obtain ballot status.

Both the Michigan Republican Party and various teabagger groups are claming this is the work of an imposter, designed to drain votes away from the Republican candidates. The latter part of that is true; it will drain votes away from GOP candidates because the teabaggers are the violent, racist fringe of the fringe Republican Party.

They also claim this is the work of the Michigan Democratic Party. In fact, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser said that in a statement, but that is simply not true.

You will remember when the anti-Obama teabagger farce began almost 18 months ago the claim was that it was a nonpartisan, grassroots movement consisting of both Republicans and Democrats because they were angry at both political parties and big government. Events quickly proved that not to be the case, and events left no doubt that the teabaggers wee the racist and violent arm of the Republican Party. The reaction of Weiser just confirms that.

We were also sold a bill of goods that the teabaggers were a grassroots uprising, but that was quickly debunked when it was revealed it was a creation of two Washington, D.C. think tanks and lobbying groups. Teabaggers still cling to that “grassroots” lie, claiming there is no leader and that there are just individual groups not aligned with the GOP or each other. The claim that "the tea party is a grassroots movement that belongs to everybody” is just one more lie.

But now so-called teabag leaders are claiming this cannot be a legitimate petition drive because they don’t know the people behind the petition drive. If it’s leaderless like they claim, then why is it not surprising that they may not know them. I don’t know every Democrat in the state or even in Livingston County.

I’m very surprised to see teabaggers achieve ballot statues because the teabaggers don’t stand for anything but hate, racism and anti-government rhetoric, and they are the violent wing of the Republicans Party. It would be nice for them to stand up for what they say they believe in, but they know voters will soundly reject them.

But like I said back in May when the petition drive was first news, they have a lot of roadblocks to getting real candidates on the ballot. I didn’t think it could get enough signatures, but I was wrong about that.

The hurdles to getting candidates on the ballot in November are huge. The party has to obtain a facility to hold a convention, publish a call to the convention, draw up bylaws, transmit that Information to the Secretary of State and accomplish the hundreds of details that goes along with a convention by August 3. Then it has to find actual candidates to run. Finding good candidates to run against long odds, like recruiting a good Democrat to run in a strong Republican area and a Republican in a strong Democratic area is difficult. Finding good candidates will also be imposters will be even harder.

I’m very anxious to see how this plays out. The unsuccessful teabagger petition drive to deny Michigan residents health care showed some cracks in the "tea party" and alleged teabagger leaders Joan Fabiano and Wendy Day were at each other’s throats over it.

The newest GOP lie on health care reform: five years in prison

Just when you think you have heard all the Republican lies about health care, they roll out another one to debunk.

The newest lie is that there is a provision in the historic Affordable Health Care for America Act passed earlier this month that - get this - where you will get five years in prison for not buying government approved insurance. Nothing could be further from the truth, but the rightwing echo chamber has picked up on it, and even local blogs like the Republican Michigander are pushing that lie.

They have used the lie of death panels, illegal aliens will be provided free health care at taxpayer’s expense or a government official will make medical decisions. Even Mike Rogers is making the false claim and scaring senior citizens who love Medicare by telling them the lie that they will lose Medicare if the bill passes. That contradicts the earlier lie by Michigan Republican Chair Ron Weiser that passage of the bill will cancel all private health insurance and put everyone on Medicare.

Which lie is it? How can Americans be on Medicare if Rogers said we will lose it? But the jail lie is the newest false talking point, but I somehow doubt it will be the last one.

The simple fact is that the penalty under the House health care reform bill for failure to purchase insurance is a tax, not jail time.

Section 501 of the House health care reform bill provides that an individual must be "covered by acceptable coverage at all times." If a person does not have acceptable health care coverage, Section 501 imposes a tax on that person "not to exceed the applicable national average premium."

Now, I understand that the larger the pool the cheaper the cost is, and that people who are not covered costs all of us, but I’m not sure I like the idea of mandating health insurance. It bothers me for auto insurance. This is something that needs to be debated with facts, not lies like jail time for not doing it.

Rightwing bloggers are claiming that the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation reported that the bill describes the penalties as follows:

• Section 7203 — misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 — felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.

There is a slight problem with that false claim: there is no Section 7203 or 7201 in the health care bill. It is in the IRS code. Non-profit and nonpartisan Factcheck.org backs that up, and it points out it’s the maximum penalty for not paying the tax.

Fact check says, “the majority of delinquent taxes and penalties are collected through the civil process," without resort to criminal penalties. Prison terms are relatively rare. Imprisonment would require the government to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the tax evasion was "willful" and the accused had the ability to pay.”

Is there any lie the Republicans will not float to protect the huge profits of the insurance industry and keep more than 50 million of Americans without insurance coverage, millions more undercover and millions more an illness away from bankruptcy?

Even state Republicans are lying about health care reform

Michigan Republican Chair Ron Weiser is, not surprisingly, lying about health care reform.

In a fundraising letter to supporters, he claims, “Some Democrats in Congress, including members from Michigan, are trying to pass laws to cancel your private health insurance and put your family on Medicare. This is not a scare tactic; it’s the truth.” Sorry Mr. Weiser, it’s the former, and that makes you a liar, and it’s just one of a number of scare tactics the Republicans are rolling out.

According to Factcheck.org: “The legislation wouldn’t require anyone to switch health insurance – though, in most cases, plans would eventually have to meet minimum benefit standards. The bills don’t require anyone to join the federal plan.”

My favorite false scare tactic is the one that claims illegal aliens will be provided free health care at taxpayer’s expense. It seems anytime it wants to fire up the base, Republicans roll out the specter of Mexicans. As the majority of Americans know, it’s just another rightwing lie. According to Factcheck: “That’s simply not what the bill says at all. The bill does explicitly say that illegal immigrants can’t get any government money to pay for health care. Page 143 states: "Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States."

I also find it very ironic that Weiser chooses to quote my Congressman, U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, in his letter who says: “I believe we can do better. The American people deserve real bipartisan health care reform that will lower costs and keep the federal government out of personal health care decisions.” Rogers plan is the status quo that is seeing 11,000 people a day lose their health care, premiums for employer-sponsored coverage have increased 119 percent in just 10 years and health care premiums for family plans have increased 78 percent in Michigan since 2000.
Plus, he’s using the false scare tactic that the government will be involved in health care choices. That’s a lie. According to Factcheck: An advisory committee “would have only the power “to recommend” what benefits are included in basic, enhanced and premium insurance plans. It would have no power to decide what treatments anybody will get. Its recommendations on benefits might or might not be adopted.”

Clearly the system is broken, and all we get from Republicans is kill reform at all costs just to hand President Obama a defeat so they can control something they claim to hate. To make the claim of bipartisanship is also at best disingenuous. Not only am I waiting for Rogers to propose a real plan, but I’m still waiting for him to hold a health care townhall meeting.

All the Democrats have held them, I believe, and Rogers knows there is no Washington, D.C. lobbying groups sending out scripts on how to disrupt Republican townhall meetings, so what is he scared of?