Roskam should channel TR instead of The Grinch Who Stole Obamacare

My Congressman Peter Roskam (GOP, IL 6th) joined all 213 other House Republicans voting Saturday to delay full implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which sets the stage for a GOP inspired shutdown of the federal government Tuesday. This 43rd vote of Roskam against the ACA ranks among the most pernicious he has taken among the hundreds to prevent any progress in creating jobs and providing critical, affordable health care for the 40 millions abandoned by the GOP. It's been 101 years since GOP icon Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to promote national health care back in 1912, when he ran for a third term on the Progressive Party ticket. Interestingly, TR, one of the four giants staring out atop Mt. Rushmore, bolted from the GOP after serving two presidential terms between 1901 and 1909, because they abandoned his progressivism which earned him that timeless perch.

Roskam spreads all the usual GOP and Tea Party lies about the ACA without ever uttering a peep of compassion for those aforementioned 40 million who have already begun to get the first rush of relief from a previously heartless society where the rich keep getting richer on the backs of the jobless and working poor.

A hundred years from now when the ACA has long and fully joined Social Security and Medicare as the three hallmarks of a just and supportive society, September 28, 2013, may stand as the low water mark of Roskam's ceaseless efforts to turn back the tide of history in furtherance of his true constituency - the heartless and insatiably greedy rich. Former history teacher Roskam should go back and study TR's 1912 platform which had this to say about health and social welfare:

"The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for ... the protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use."

Instead of another $25,653 free trip for him and his family to an exotic land sponsored by a local university or, in violation of US law, a foreign government, Congressman Roskam should take a thrifty, self paid trip to South Dakota. He should visit Mt. Rushmore and stare up at the iconic figure of Teddy Roosevelt surveying the land he gave every once of his indomitable spirit and heart to improve with progressive reforms. If TR could look down and spot the Congressman, you could imagine a tear forming in one eye. If so it would be in pain and sorrow that his party could have strayed so far from the ideals he cherished and championed. It's said that if a man tries hard enough he can move a mountain. This is one time when it would be more appropriate if a mountain could move a man.