It should have been a shining moment in Congressional history. Late in the evening on Saturday Nov 6, 2009, the House of Representatives passed a bill that will lead to a much needed overhaul of the American health care system. It's not a perfect bill, it's not everything that it should have or could have been, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. It's a foundation for change.

Unfortunately, that shining moment was marred by ugliness. First, there was the Republicans rudely interrupting their female congressional equals when they tried to speak. There was the grandstanding and the lies by those opposed to the legislation. There was the final act of partisanship by the Republicans who voted en masse (save one) against the bill.

The biggest insult to the spirit of the bill, however, was the unnecessary and draconian Stupak amendment which bars any insurance company that provides coverage for abortion in any of its plans from participating in the "insurance pool" created by the legislation.

The end result of that, of course, will be the removal of coverage for abortion from all plans by all insurance companies. Perhaps this is what the teabaggers were talking about? While we on the left have been pushing for this legislation to provide more coverage for Americans, this amendment effectively does what many Republicans warned us about: it puts a government bureaucrat between us and our doctors. Naturally, the Republicans voted FOR this government-intrusive amendment before voting AGAINST the greater bill which would remove obstacles to more comprehensive health care.

However, if that isn't hypocritical enough for you, there's the latest development about the Republican's own health care plan: It covers abortions.

Yes, that's right:

Naturally, when it gets splashed across the internets, they decide to "look into it". The fact that this option has been in their plan since 1991 shows just how little they care or how little they pay attention. I'm sure there are some in the RNC that actually do care, but don't they read their coverage information? Are they that far removed from what the rest of us go through that they don't even have to bother - they just go to the doctor and assume it's covered?

What does it say about a party that wants the government to interfere with everyone else's health care decisions regarding a specific procedure, while saying they're against government interference in principle, and then providing a service to their members that they're trying to ban for everyone else with the previously mentioned interference?

Hypocrisy seems too weak a word for it.

What do you call this?