Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., compared Republican attacks on the health care overhaul to Nazi propaganda advanced by Joseph Goebbels that led to the Holocaust.
Cohen, who is Jewish, made the remarks to a mostly empty chamber on Tuesday night as he argued against a Republican bill to repeal the health care law.
“They don’t like the truth so they summarily dismiss it,” Cohen said. “They say it’s a government takeover of health care, a big lie just like (Nazi propagandist Joseph) Goebbels.”
“You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, and eventually, people believe it. Like blood libel. That’s the same kind of thing,” he said.
Blood libel is a historically and false anti-Semitic charge that Jews killed Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals. Sarah Palin drew controversy for citing the term last week to defend herself against accusations on the left that her use of violent imagery helped incite the mass shootings.
“The Germans said enough about the Jews and people believed it, and you have the Holocaust,” Cohen added in his remarks. “You tell a lie over and over again.”
Cohen’s spokesman did not return messages left on his office and cell phones.
