Mark Pocan: “When Queen Helen of Sparta was abducted by the Trojan prince Paris, Helen's jilted husband convinced his brother, a…”

“When Queen Helen of Sparta was abducted by the Trojan prince Paris, Helen's jilted husband convinced his brother, a Greek king, to lead an expedition to retrieve her. He was accompanied by a fleet of more than a thousand ships. They crossed the sea to Troy and demanded Helen's return. The siege, punctuated by all sorts of battles and skirmishes, lasted more than 10 years until one day when Odysseus had a bright idea. He said: Hey, guys, let's build a really massive wooden horse. Let's pretend like we have given up and sailed our fleet behind some island, but really about 30 of us will hide inside the horse. We will have someone tell the Trojans that it is some kind of gift to Athena, the goddess of war, and they will haul it into their city. When they are asleep, we will all sneak out, open the gates for everybody else, and totally kill everybody in the city. And that is the legend of the Trojan horse. So what is the moral of that story and why am I reciting Greek lore on the floor of Congress today? Well, because history has a way of repeating itself. Today we have our own Trojan horse, a so-called GOP healthcare bill, TrumpCare, that professes to be about health care but, in reality, is a Trojan horse to give tax breaks to the wealthiest in the country. Let's take a serious look at it. We are told that it is the replacement to the Affordable Care Act, a bill that has offered insurance to over 20 million people in this country.…”