For months, Republicans have justified their opposition to real health care reform by claiming that America has the "best health care system in the world." As the argument goes, Congress can make changes to improve the system, but the plans proposed by Democrats could "destroy" what we have now.
Last night, however, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) suggested that you can't improve something if it's already the "greatest." Speaking on the House floor, Foxx -- herself a recipient of government-run Medicare -- blasted the public insurance option. Then, she looked back on President Obama's campaign platform of "change" and said, "To me, that meant take what's good about this country and change it into something that's not good."
You may all remember that the president said in his campaign, "We live in the greatest country in the world. Help me change it." To me, that meant take what's good about this country and change it into something that's not good.
Watch it:
First of all, the quote Foxx references doesn't appear to be real. It comes from an anti-Obama poem called "The Pied Piper," which went viral in the right-wing blogosphere earlier this year:
There was a Pied Piper who said We live in the greatest country in the world. Help me change it!*And the people said, Change is good!
Then he said, We are going to tax the rich fat-cats,
*And the people said, "Sock it to them!"
and redistribute their wealth.
*And the people said, "Show me the money!"
Moreover, the notion that change necessarily means change for the worse is, frankly, pretty stupid. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) also promised to bring "change," as has pretty much every other candidate in recent memory. For a backward-thinking conservative to believe that America should be finished making progress may not be a huge surprise, but it's a stance that most of the country wholeheartedly rejects.
Crossposted at Media Matters Action Network