The GOP is getting desperate in the face of their constituents, who will not stop protesting, showing up, and demanding answers. The reek of cowardly ordure emanating from repubs is overwhelming at this point, and they are saying the first thing that pops into their vacuous heads in an attempt to make everyone shut up and go away, including the resurrection of the infamous lie about death panels. Yep. There are two stories here, we’ll start with Utah, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) says paid protesters were among the thousand-plus people who gave him a raucous, negative reception at a town hall in Salt Lake City on Thursday. The crowd chanted “shame!” and “do your job.”

It was “more of a paid attempt to bully and intimidate” than a reflection of the feelings of his constituents, Chaffetz told the Deseret News. … But reporters who were at the event and interviewed attendees say they found no evidence anybody was paid to be there.

No, they wouldn’t, because the “paid protesters” nonsense is nothing more than a lie, and attempt to justify stupid and harmful actions along with evading questions about said actions.

Utah state Rep. Marie Poulson (D-Cottonwood Heights) represents the area around the high school where the town hall was held. She told the Deseret News she believes almost all the protesters were local.

“I’ve heard some of my colleagues (at the Utah Legislature) say here today that they had shipped in liberals to give him a bad time,” she said. “I serve that area and I listen to their frustrations.”

Poulson said she’s heard from many people frustrated that Chaffetz, chair of the House Oversight Committee, has so far seemed unwilling to investigate President Trump’s conflicts of interests.

“I had so many get back to me and say, ‘We’ve been so upset by what Rep. Chaffetz is doing. We want him to investigate equally, with as much zeal as he did in the past, with this current administration,’” Poulson said, referring to Chaffetz’s dogged investigation into the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi incident that occurred under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s watch.

A whole lot of people are wondering what happened to all that violating the constitution, and why no one seems to be concerned about it, let alone doing something about it. The constitution has indeed been violated, to pieces, and the response from the rethugs? ****crickets****

Last Monday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said “protesting has become a profession now.”

No, it hasn’t. People still have their day jobs, if they are fortunate enough to be employed. All the protests are a sign of just how bad you are fucking up, and people are tired. They are also mad as hell, and not willing to take it anymore.

“They have every right to do that, don’t get me wrong, but I think that we need to call it what it is. It’s not these organic uprisings that we’ve seen through the last several decades — the Tea Party was a very organic movement — this has become a very paid, astroturf-type movement,” Spicer added, providing no evidence for his claims.

The Tea Party was organic because…? Oh right, delusional right wingers, who spent years flinging their shit all over the place in an effort to unseat a legally elected president. And yet, in the case of an illegally elected president, one who is an inexperienced, incompetent megalomaniac bent on destruction, the current grassroots movement is astroturf. Right. That is one of the stupidest things I have heard in a while, and that’s saying something, given the news every day.

Full story at Think Progress. Moving on to Rep. Gus Bilirakis and Bill Akins — chair of Pasco County, Florida’s Republican Party, who tried the “death panels!” defense, which did not work in any way.

Politifact’s 2009 “Lie of the Year” was brought back from the dead during a Saturday town hall hosted by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) — and the mostly pro-ACA crowd wasn’t having any of it.

Bill Akins — chair of Pasco County, Florida’s Republican Party — told the roughly 250 people in attendance that his problem with the Affordable Care Act is that “there is a provision in there that anyone over the age of 74 has to go before what is effectively a death panel.”

As soon as the words “death panel” left Akins’ mouth, the crowd erupted in boos, jeers, and chants of “liar, liar.”

“It’s in there folks. You’re wrong!” Akins replied, falsely, as Bilirakis tried to restore order. Akins then calls the angry crowd “children.”

Ah yes, we’re just children who don’t know utter bullshit when we smell it. The republican habit of handing people a pile of shit and calling it cherries persists.

As CNN’s Eric Bradner reported from the event, Bilirakis heard from a man who said his daughter has a genetic disease is still alive because of the ACA and a doctor who reported seeing fewer self-paying patients since the ACA became law.

But Bilirakis— who describes himself as a “staunch opponent of Obamacare” on his website — persisted in making his case that people should have the “choice” to be uninsured.

“You gotta have choice, ladies and gentleman,” he said. “People should have the opportunity to pay for their own plan based on their own needs.”

Jesus Fuck. These immoral assholes don’t care how evil they are, they just spit it out. “Based on their own needs.” Yes, well, that would be the reason for ACA in the first place, you depraved caitiff. People needed healthcare, specifically affordable healthcare. ACA, Affordable Care Act, which was a choice made available to people. A choice which you and your unethical cohorts removed.

…Studies indicate repealing the ACA could cost 32 million people their health insurance, reduce U.S. job growth by almost 1.2 million in 2019, and result in between 27,000 and 36,000 preventable deaths each year.

Interesting how the stinking cowards of the GOP refuse to answer any questions about the exceedingly high cost of removing the one affordable choice in health care for American citizens.

Full story here.