One of the key issues at stake in the ongoing lame duck congressional session is whether to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Conservatives have argued for extending these tax cuts, despite their cost of adding $830 billion to the federal budget deficit over the next ten years. Yesterday, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) took to the House floor to visualize the impact of the Bush tax cuts on the wallets of the richest Americans. The congressman explained that, for the top one percent of income earners in the United States — those who earn at least $1.4 million a year — the Bush tax cuts would give them a tax break of $83,347 a year.

“Let’s give some thought as to what the high and mighty might do with that money,” the Florida congressman said. Used floor charts, Grayson explained that the $83,347 a year was enough to buy 800 expensive cigars — “that’s one for the morning and one for the evening” — and “light each one of those cigars with a hundred dollar bill.” Watch it:

In addition to allowing the rich to buy 800 high-priced cigars and smoke them with 100 dollar bills, here are a few other luxuries that Grayson calculated the richest one percent of Americans could afford if the Bush tax cuts were continued:

- A Mercedes Benz E-Class Car Every Year: Grayson explained that the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans would provide them with enough money to purchase an “$83,000 Mercedes Benz E-Class car, not just once, but every single year for the next decade.”

- An Elite Designer Handbag Every Year: The congressman revealed that the richest Americans could purchase a “gorgeous Hermies bag, a Birkin, for $64,800 dollars. Not once, but every single year for the next ten years. For which they will say to the Republican party, ‘Thank you very much.’”

- A Bottle Of Wine Bottled in 1787 Every Year: Grayson explained that the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans would provide them with enough cash to buy a “bottle of Chatteau d’Yquem wine bottled in 1787 for only $56,588, that will leave them loose change in their pocket of $25,000. They can buy a bottle of wine from 1787 every year for the next decade. Thank you Republican Party.”

- 20,000 Jars Of Grey Poupon Every Year: “They can buy 20,000 jars of their favorite mustard, Grey Poupon. 20,000 jars,” Grayson exclaimed. “That’s certainly enough for them, their family, their friends, even a few poor people. Thank you Republican Party!”

As Congress continues to debate the fate of the Bush tax cuts, it’s unclear whether the richest Americans will face a tax hike soon. However, the American people side with Grayson, apparently believing that at a time when income inequality is higher than since the 1920s, the richest Americans don’t need extra tax breaks. A recent CNN poll found that 64 percent of Americans want to let the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire. A separate NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that only 23 percent want to keep the cuts.

Last August, the RNC sent a fundraising appeal suggesting that if health reform passed, Democrats might deny medical care to Republicans. “It has been suggested,” a question on the RNC push poll read, “that the government could use voter registration to determine a person’s political affiliation, prompting fears that GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system.” Of course, this was nonsense and the RNC was forced to walk back the claim. But ironically, now that reform is a reality, a Republican doctor is discriminating against Democrats:

“I’m not turning anybody away — that would be unethical,” Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. “But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it.”

The sign reads: “If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years.” [...]

In his waiting room, Cassell also has provided his patients with photocopies of a health-care timeline produced by Republican leaders that outlines “major provisions” in the health-care package. The doctor put a sign above the stack of copies that reads: “This is what the morons in Washington have done to your health care. Take one, read it and vote out anyone who voted for it.”

University of Florida bioethics Professor William Allen said Cassell “is pushing the limit” of his profession’s code of conduct by suggesting that he’ll refuse to treat people based on their political orientation. He’s “trying to hold onto the nub of his ethical obligation,” Allen added. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) said he was “disgusted” by the “ridiculous” sign. “Maybe he thinks the Hippocratic Oath says, ‘Do no good.’ If this is the face of the right wing in America, it’s the face of cruelty,” Grayson added.

Earlier this week, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), one of the Senate’s most stalwart obstructionists, made a wild claim on the Senate floor intended to scare seniors. He told them that if the Senate health care bill passes, they’re “going to die soon.” Many in the media were quick to compare Coburn’s wild claim with the comments made by Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), who noted that the GOP’s health care plan — which would either maintain or worsen the status quo — amounts to telling people “don’t get sick, and if you do get sick…die quickly.”

On the Alan Colmes radio show yesterday, Grayson responded to people comparing his comments to Coburn’s. He told Colmes that the “basis for what [Coburn] is saying is delusion”:

GRAYSON: There’s no valid comparison unless lies are now the same as truth. … I mean, I had a Harvard study to back me up. And everybody knows the Republicans haven’t any plan for health care. They still don’t have a plan for health care. …. And the basis for what he’s saying is delusion. There’s nothing in the Democrats’ health care bill that would put any senior at risk at all. So I – I know that people have been drawn to this idea that there is somehow this moral equivalence between what I said and what Senator Coburn said, but I think that’s ridiculous.

Listen to it:

While Coburn continues to make the ridiculous claim that seniors will die if the Senate passes its health care bill, Americans continue to perish simply because they don’t have health care. As the Harvard study that Grayson cites concludes, nearly 45,000 Americans die every year because they lack proper access to health care.

Republican lawmakers have been pressing Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) to apologize for saying that the Republican alternative health care proposals would force sick Americans to “die quickly” (even though their own members have been making absurdly false claims about Democratic plans). Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) said that Grayson should “do the right thing and recognize the comments that he made were disrespectful to the House and to the decorum.” Today in her weekly press conference, however, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that there’s no reason for Grayson to apologize:

Apparently Republicans hold Democrats to a higher standard than they hold members of their own party. … There’s no reason for Mr. Grayson to apologize. If anyone should apologize, everyone should apologize.

Yesterday, Grayson did say he was sorry — to all the people who have lost their lives because they didn’t have health insurance (almost 45,000 Americans each year).

Yesterday, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) said the Republican health care plan is “don’t get sick,” and if you do get sick, “die quickly.” After offering those facetious and sadly accurate remarks, Grayson came under criticism from Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), who demanded that Grayson apologize on the House floor. Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Grayson said, “Yes, it was tongue-in-cheek. I’m surprised I have to explain that, but that’s the way it goes these days.” He added that he’s “not taking any of it back” and will “stand by what I said.” When asked if he would apologize, Grayson offered this response:

“I would like to apologize,” he said. “I would like to apologize to the dead.”

Citing a statistic that 44,789 Americans die each year because they don’t have health insurance, Grayson said, “That is more than ten times the number of Americans who died in the war in Iraq, it’s more than ten times the number of Americans who died on 9/11. …It happens every year.”

Grayson added in another apparent dig at the GOP, “We should care about people even after they are born.”

Grayson apologized one last time.

“I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner,” he said.

“I don’t think the Democrats need to be on defense,” Grayson told reporters. “I think we should be on the offense and not the defense, and that’s where I plan to stay.”