George,

One could easily question the Tea Party/conservative-dominated GOP's motives for the 40+ votes to overturn and/or eliminate funding for the Affordable Care Act (AKA "Obamacare").

Even as the program is gaining acceptance and states are realizing lower costs as coverage broadens, benefits expand and universal health care finally seems to be arriving in the last major democracy on the planet. The Right labors away!

It would be easy to question if the history of the right wing's opposition to virtually every progressive piece of legislation from Child Labor Laws, Mine Safety Laws, Women's Right to Vote, Social Security legislation and a host of others were not known. Laws the American citizenry accept as a way of life but the right wing see as barriers to the control they seek

Fortunately, in the past, enough Republicans and Democrats who were interested in "government for the people" kept the nation moving forward.

Today with the abuse of the filibuster in the Senate, coupled with an obstructionist right wing dominated House of Representatives, little can get done to advance this nation to better days and a more positive direction.

Slowly, Americans seem to be seeing the damage of this new age "know nothing" party and with a push "by the people" to re-energize democracy,our nation can once again come to even keel.

Harry Tenney (Electronic mail, July 30, 2013)

Note: Pope Francis,the sacred head of 1.2 BILLION Roman Catholics is shown to be a more progressive humanitarian than our GOP candidate for governor ... Ken Cuchinelli. No surprise!