To: The Anti-Health Care Tea Baggers (And The Party Of No)

Dear Anti-Health Care Tea Baggers (And The Party Of No),

First of all, your name is all wrong, both from a sexual and a historical perspective. I’ll let your teenage children explain the sexual part. But I’ll give you the historical part. Unlike you, the real patriots who rebelled at the Boston Tea Party in 1773 were protesting a foreign monarchally designated head of state, not a domestic democratically elected representative. In addition, their focus was a rational tax issue, not an irrational “birther” issue. WTF?! [SIGNUP]

Second, the Founding Fathers’ first official document, namely the Declaration of Independence, made it crystal clear that health care is a fundamental right when they wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women and children) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, (and) that among these are Life…” Obviously and logically, life means health, good health. Consistent with the founders, President Barack Obama pointed out “the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health…” That’s precisely why he took the lead during his historic presidency to fight for and win historic health care reform.

And he did it because, like passage of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security laws, it was the right thing to do. From Teddy Roosevelt to Harry Truman to Lyndon Johnson to Richard Nixon (yes, Richard Nixon) to Bill Clinton, health care reform was actively pursued simply because it was the right thing to do. Opposing health care reform is like refusing to throw a life raft to a drowning person. WTF?!

Third, although a step in the right direction, this health care reform is by no means what it should have been in terms of completely meeting the widespread and dire needs of seriously ill Americans. In other words, it should have had a single payer system to kill the homicidal insurance industry or at the very least a public option to wound the injurious insurance industry. While the reforms are certainly not perfect, they do provide coverage to 32 million persons, expand Medicaid to many more poor people, and end insurance company abuses like denial of coverage for pre-exisiting illnesses, capping total coverage, and cutting off coverage for those most in need. As Voltaire proclaimed, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Sick people in this country will gladly take whatever they can get, whether it’s a half loaf or even just a slice. And the tea-baggers, while gorging on massive loaves, refuse to toss even crumbs. WTF?!

Fourth, the tea-baggers’ name calling says much worse about those targeting than those targeted. They called African American congressmen “nigger,” a gay congressman “faggot,” and even one of their own anti-choice congressman a “baby killer.” WTF?!

Fifth, they claim that their opposition stems directly from the need to limit the power of big government and to cut costs. But they orgasmically embraced the Patriot Act and lustfully endorsed the more than $700 billion spent on the lie-based Iraq war — while blindly ignoring the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s uncontested conclusion that these health care reforms will reduce the federal budget by nearly $145 billion within just 10 years. WTF?!

And finally, not only was passage of the health care bill “remarkable and improbable” as aptly noted by President Obama, but it was in fact, as precisely noted by Vice President Joe Biden, a “big fucking deal.”

So when I ask the tea baggers “WTF,” I guess Biden answered it. Thanks, Joe!

MICHAEL COARD is a Philadelphia attorney.