THE TELEGRAPH: Democrats who supported sweeping changes to America's health care system have been subjected to death threats and vandalism as the tide of anger and outrage over the bill grows.
The FBI has been called in to investigate after bricks were thrown through Democrats' windows and menacing phone messages were left for politicians who supported the bill.
Four Democratic offices across the country have been targeted and [at] least 10 members of Congress have reported some sort of threat. No arrests have so far been made.
The brick flung through the window of a county Democratic Party office in Rochester, New York, over the weekend had a note attached: "Extremism in defence of liberty is no vice," roughly quoting 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.
Some of the anger over the bill spilled over in a flood of obscenity and threat-filled phone and fax messages to the office of Rep. Bart Stupak. His office released some of the messages it has received since the health care bill passed.
"I hope you bleed ... (get) cancer and die," one male caller told the congressman.
A fax with the title "Defecating on Stupak" carried a picture of a gallows with "Bart (SS) Stupak" on it and a noose attached. It was captioned, "All Baby Killers come to unseemly ends Either by the hand of man or by the hand of God." >>> | Thursday, March 25, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: Barack Obama's historic US healthcare legislation is to be returned to the House of Representatives for a new vote because of a procedural "violation", only a day after it was signed into law.
Two Republican challenges on points of order under budget reconciliation rules have been upheld, forcing another vote by the House just days after it passed the package on Sunday.
The points of order involved the revamp of the student loan programme included in the package, a spokesman for Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, said.
Under the reconciliation rules, each provision in the package must have a budgetary impact.
The decision came as the US Senate met in a middle-of-the-night session to try to finalise details of the Bill, which was signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday.
The decision is a major blow for the Democrats and could set up another politically difficult vote in the House, which narrowly passed the $940 billion (£630 billion) overhaul to cap a year-long political struggle. >>> Times Online | Thursday, March 25, 2010
