CRAZYTALK: Rep. Roscoe Bartlett Compares Supreme Court Obamacare Ruling to Dred Scott Decision Upholding Slavery

PLUS: Tea Party Delegate Mike Smigiel Spouts Birther Nonsense

A few days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld key provisions of President Obama's health care plan, more commonly known as Obamacare. A number of Maryland politicos have issued statements responding to the groundbreaking high court ruling (see a roundup of comments at Maryland Reporter), but Maryland Congressman Roscoe Bartlett's statement may just beat them all. The Tea Party member issued an absolutely ridiculous press statement comparing the Supreme Court's health care ruling to the Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery in America. Slavery?!? WTF. 

REP. ROSCOE BARTLETT: “All that is legal is not moral.  This same Supreme Court at a different time in history and different justices handed down the Dred Scott decision.  I doubt there is a single justice today that would believe the Dred Scott decision was either moral or constitutional.  I believe that future analysts will view this Supreme Court decision in the same light.  We are a constitutional republic and respect the judicial process; however, I believe that Obamacare will be reversed by the people in November who strongly disagree with the Court’s decision regarding the individual mandate.

The Supreme Court decision does not fix Obamacare which threatens to explode our deficit, does nothing to rein in skyrocketing health care costs, and includes new job killing taxes.   I remain committed to working with colleagues from both parties on common sense reforms to  eliminate these disastrous effects while fixing the pre-existing condition problem, retaining coverage for post adolescent children still in school and perhaps most important, a providing meaningful solution to the litigation cases excesses,” said Congressman Roscoe G. Bartlett (MD-6).

BACKGROUND: Maryland's 6th Congressional District Rep. Roscoe Bartlett is in the toughest race of his multi-decade career. After this year's redistricting, CD6 became significantly more Democratic, and now John Delaney -- a deep-pocketed multimillionaire with lots of rich donor friends -- has won the Democratic nomination. Bartlett's district now includes a very large contingent of voters from the Dems' stronghold in Montgomery County, so you would think he would try to moderate some of the crazy in the Maryland GOP. Not so -- Roscoe Bartlett appears determined to double-down on the Tea Party's talking points. Beyond Bartlett's ridiculous statement about Obamacare, he has also issued recent statements attacking immigrants and adopted the evangelical rightwing position on marriage equality.

Maryland Juice has repeatedly highlighted the long-term problems the State's GOP seems to be creating for itself. All of this crazytalk coming from Republican elected officials will make it impossible for them to ever win more than a small percentage of the state's offices. See another example below.


BONUS CRAZYTALK: DEL. MIKE SMIGIEL SPOUTS BIRTHER NONSENSE - After President Obama announced that his administration would stop pursuing the deportation of young undocumented residents, Maryland Delegate Mike Smigiel revealed just how much of an idiot he is. Following a long-line of debunked "birther" stupidity from conspiracy theorists, Smigiel attacked Obama's citizenship status by suggesting he is not a citizen:

This is getting really old.

WOW: Frederick County Makes English Official Language // Montgomery & Baltimore Join Federal Deportation Program

WTOP is reporting that last night, Frederick County voted to make English their official language:

Frederick County has become the first in Maryland to make English the official language of the government.

The vote was 4-1 on Tuesday, with the lone dissent coming from Commissioner David Gray....

A public hearing regarding the issue took nearly three hours, during which most of the 19 people who spoke were against the measure.

Among those speaking against the ordinance was Meredith Kelly, who says the first settlers of Frederick County were German.

"By various reports, English was not the area language until the Irish immigrants came in in the late 1840s. The original newspapers were published in both German and English. So, I have to look at the history of the county and wonder, what the hell is the point of this legislation? What does it benefit, because it looks like pure anti-immigrant posturing," Kelly says.

Meanwhile, CASA de Maryland reports that today is doomsday for many Latino families in Maryland. Montgomery County and Baltimore City are set to implement the so-called "Secure Communities" program that was rejected by Democratic Governors in New York, Massachusetts and Illinois. The federal program demands that local governments check and transfer information about the citizenship status of residents, even if they are not convicted of a crime. The District of Columbia also rejected the program on the day that researchers released disturbing findings about the program. A number of actual U.S. citizens were arrested under Secure Communities (oops!), and the program disproportionately targets Latinos, sometimes breaking up families over trivial issues:

The study is the first to analyze government data on the program. Among its findings:

• 1.6 percent of those arrested were actually U.S. citizens
• 39 percent of people arrested through Secure Communities have at least one child or spouse who is a U.S. citizen
• 93 percent of those arrested are Latinos, even though they account for 77 percent of the entire undocumented population

See the press release from CASA below: