Elevating the political dialogue, Democratic style:

In an extraordinary outburst on the House floor, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) invoked the Holocaust to attack Republicans on health care and compared rhetoric on the issue to the work of infamous Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

"They say it's a government takeover of health care, a big lie just like Goebbels," Cohen said. "You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, and eventually, people believe it. Like blood libel. That's the same kind of thing. And Congressman Cohen didn't stop there.

"The Germans said enough about the Jews and people believed it--believed it and you have the Holocaust. We heard on this floor, government takeover of health care. Politifact said the biggest lie of 2010 was a government takeover of health care because there is no government takeover," Cohen said.

Cohen made his comments late last night, but they have attracted no attention because his speech was made to a virtually empty House chamber with no reporters around to watch.

Note: If the government can dictate to insurance companies what kind of coverages they must offer, how much they can charge, who they must cover, and who gets subsidies to help pay for it - I would say that's a great big "yes" to the idea of a government takeover of health insurance. But then, what do I know? I'm a Nazi-loving Holocaust initiator. 

Also, come back and see me in 5 years when, unless they are stopped, there won't be any private insurance companies. Driving companies out of the market by making it impossible to make money offering insurance to consumers is a feature, not a bug of this monstrosity.