Does John Culberson (R-TX) Really Want To Incite The Passions Of The Civil War Again?

Yesterday afternoon Lawrence O'Donnell was sitting in for Chris Matthews on Hardball and he went out of his way-- or someone else did for him-- to find one of the dimmest bulbs from the House Republican caucus, Texas reactionary John Culberson. Culb's hip to the newest/oldest of right wing talking points though, and has drafted a bill that would, in effect, allow any state to nullify any federal spending bill its legislature doesn't like. Apparently, like his state's governor, Rep. Culberson would like to gin up secessionist talk again. Why not just let them go if that's what they want? Who wants them ruining the country for the rest of us? We're not going to have universal single-payer health care because of the Neanderthals who keep electing people like John Culberson. What would you rather have-- health insurance for your family... or Texas and South Carolina?

O'Donnell beat the shit out of him. When defending himself he whined that his constituents are "very happy with me." But are they? The demographically changing Houston district went from giving Gore 31% of its votes in 2000 to giving Kerry 36% in 2004 and Obama 41% last year. At the same time Culberson went from 74% in 2000 to 64% in 2004 to a shaky 56% last year. Even if he wins in 2010, that'll be the last time the district will support someone so off-the-cliff extreme, and so full of shit.

When watching this clip, please keep in mind that, unlike Steve Kagen (D-WI), Culberson and his family accept taxpayer subsidized socialist health care and that he has taken $273,909 in thinly disguised bribes from the Medical-Industrial Complex, another $80,250 from Big Insurance and $61,285 from crooked DC lobbyists, whose interests are certainly not in line with the residents of his Houston district. Oh, and one more thing-- Texans are among the states with the most to gain from passage of the health care reform bill. According to an analysis by the Center For American Progress, Texas will be a big winner if the bill passes.

• 480 residents of Texas are losing health insurance every day, and 14,000 Americans nationwide lose insurance daily.

• The average family premium in Texas costs $1,800 more because our system fails to cover everyone-- and $1,100 more nationally.

• Our broken health insurance system will cost the Texas economy as much as $30 billion this year in productivity losses due to the uninsured-- and up to $248 billion nationally.

• In Texas there has been a 10 percent increase in the uninsured rate since 2007.

• 6,240,000 are uninsured today in Texas.

• In Texas the combined market share of the top two insurers is 59 percent, limiting employers’ and families’ health insurance options as well as the care they receive.

• The average family premium will rise from $13,507 to $23,049 by 2019 in Texas without health care reform.

• In Texas, without health care reform, 866,580 will have lost coverage from January 2008 to December 2010.

• In Texas, 2,889,000 people would gain coverage as a result of the House health care reform bill by 2013, and 4,647,000 would gain coverage by 2019.

• A typical Texas family will pay $23,049 for health coverage in 2019 without health care reform.