Children with cancer need help, not political extortion

(Click on images to enlarge. All images courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, whose website is now closed due to the shutdown.)

 (WPA poster. New Dealers helped children with illnesses, they didn't harm them through political extortion.) 

Republican & Tea Party politicians, in their cruel mission to keep low-income families and children from receiving affordable health care through the new Affordable Care Act, are hurting children with cancer. (See, for example, "No, the House GOP Isn't Standing Up for Kids With Cancer")

And, if you have any doubt about what this shutdown is about, and who is causing it, you should read this excellent piece by Professor of History Ellen Fitzpatrick, of the University of New Hampshire, and Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol, of Harvard University, "Worst shutdown in modern U.S. history."    

(WPA poster. New Dealers helped children with illnesses, they didn't harm them through political extortion.)

In a strategy to save face over their shutdown, Republican & Tea Party politicians are now trying to pass bills to fund only the parts of government that they want funded, or the parts that might win them some political points, while they put a stranglehold on the rest of the government. For example, they put forth a bill to fund the national parks...so they can showboat about how they really "care" about the parks, and how they really "care" about the vacations Americans planned months ago.

The problem with the Republican & Tea Party strategy, is that it is government-by-extortion, followed by disingenuous attempts to show concern. If this strategy is successful, then Republican & Tea Party politicians, whenever they are angry, can circumvent the U.S. Constitution and govern the country with a continuous combination of government shut downs and "piecemeal funding." The Affordable Care Act was enacted by Congress, signed by the president, and passed judicial scrutiny in the Supreme Court. The Republican & Tea Party refusal to fund the government until the law is changed is extortion, plain and simple. It is not how laws were meant to be enacted, implemented, or repealed. It is not the constitutional process.

This is a sad and shameful time in American history. Children with cancer need help, not political extortion by the right.

(WPA poster. New Dealers helped children with illnesses, they didn't harm them through political extortion.)