Even though a good portion of its candidates were booted out of office in November, and even though Floridians shot down Amendment 1, and even though Obama not only won the election but also won Florida, the Tea Party is still insisting that the government do what it says, because of loud angry reasons.
On Monday, dozens of Tea Party activists crashed a Florida Senate floor meeting on Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and insisted that health-care reform is bad and government is bad, and then they booed the Democratic Senate minority leader because he's the Democratic Senate minority leader.
The activists were also joined by conservative religious leaders, making this one helluva shindig.
"We will not comply with this unlawful mandate," Pastor James Hall of the Baptist Coalition of North Florida said as he was met with raucous applause.
Jesus would never go for all this healing the sick and the poor tomfoolery!
Rick Scott had been very adamant about his opposition of the health-care law. But then he saw that his approval ratings were hitting an iceberg and realized that the majority of Floridians disagree with him, so he's softened his stance on it.
But the conservative crowd ain't care about no Rick Scott changing his mind and trumpeted their tired argument that the Constitution does not grant the federal government the authority to make health-care decisions yada-yada-yada...
The fact that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld most of the health-care law and that voters and polls agree with the health-care law matters not, because Jesuslandia proclaims that federal government interference bad!
Florida has one of the highest rates of uninsured residents and some of the most stringent eligibility requirements in the country for Medicaid. A family of three with an income of $11,000 a year makes too much, and single residents are not covered.
Florida has until December 14 to tell federal officials if it will set up its own health exchange -- an online marketplace where residents and small businesses can shop for health-care coverage -- or if it wants to partner up with the federal government or allow the government to run the program entirely.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chris Smith told the crowd that the federal government is a good thing, like when it stepped in to uphold justice in civil rights cases. The crowd booed him for this.
"Our Constitution is an imperfect document," he said. "If it was perfect, it would not have amendments to it. The Constitution had to be amended through time."
But these are people who literally believe that a talking snake fooled a lady into eating some fruit a long time ago. Reason and rational discourse only makes them........ ANGRIER.
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