Janet Mefferd spoke with Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) on Friday about a Department of Homeland Security solicitation for a security contractor “at various locations throughout the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin.” While Gohmert said he didn’t know much about it, he claimed that the health care reform law may be creating a security force no one knows about.
Mefferd responded by launching into a composite of conspiracy theories hooked on President Obama’s 2008 call for a “national civilian security force” — which was actually just a plan to boost groups such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps (a plan that never got funding anyway) — including a right-wing conspiracy theory about DHS stockpiling ammunition that is so ridiculous that even Breitbart News doesn’t buy it.
The congressman, for his part, wondered about “the provisions in [Obamacare] for the President’s own Commissioned and non-Commissioned Officer Corps,” speculating that these officers could be deployed in non-health related emergencies. “Are they using weapons to train or are they being taught to use syringes and health care items?” he asked.
The scary, dangerous group Gohmert seems to be referring to is the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which trains “emergency response teams” to “respond to public health crises and national emergencies such as natural disasters, disease outbreaks, or terrorist attacks, both here and overseas.” The Affordable Care Act contained a provision setting up a Ready Reserve Corps for public health responders who work for the Commissioned Corps but not on a full-time basis.
Gohmert said that he would investigate the “secret security force” in Minnesota and Wisconsin, adding the caveat that he wouldn’t mind it if it was “something that’s going to protect the borders.”
