This stuff just writes itself, which is, of course, what Louie Gohmert hopes for.

While Democrats run out the clock in order to force Republicans to act like grownups, the House of Representatives is busy, busy, busy doing the people's business. Today's agenda? Vote on a Senate bill to remove the word "lunatic" from Federal Law. I note for the record that they did not also vote to remove the word "idiot", which is probably a good thing.

According to The Hill, the bill passed almost unanimously. Gohmert's "no" vote was the only vote against it. Only a lunatic could defend keeping the word lunatic in federal law, right?

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) was unapologetic for his lone Wednesday vote against a bill striking the word "lunatic" from U.S. law, and said the word should be used more often to describe many of the people in Washington, D.C.

"I don't have a problem with 'lunatic' being used in the federal law, and apparently I was the only one here on the floor," he said shortly after the House approved the bill.

"In fact, it occurred to me that not only should we not ... eliminate the term 'lunatic' at a time when we are facing national bankruptcy if we don't get serious about our issues, but we should also use the term to identify those who want to continue doing business as usual around this town," he added. "It's time we got serious."

Maybe Gohmert thought he would be excluded from coverage under federal law if they quit using that word and struck it from existing law. Someone should have told him he'd still fall under the idiot designation.

On Saturday morning Lidiane Carmo woke up in Florida, where she was attending a church conference with her father, mother, and sister. Carmo was the youngest in her family, and they had traveled to Florida with her pastor father, her aunt, uncle and cousins as well as several other other church members.

On Sunday morning, Lidiane woke up in a Florida hospital with broken bones and internal injuries after the van they were traveling in was involved in Sunday's horrendous highway pileup on I-75 near Gainesville, Florida. Her father, mother, sister, uncle, aunt and cousin were killed. She is the sole survivor in her immediate family.

Lidiane's parents came to the United States from Brazil 12 years ago, bringing five-year old Letiticia and three-year old Lidiane with them. They had legal visas which have since expired.

Lidiane is now an orphan. She has no health insurance. She has no legal status to remain in this country. And she has no family beyond those remaining members of her father's church. She is the sole survivor.

If we had a DREAM Act in place, Lidiane could petition for citizenship here since she entered the country legally. But we don't, and because of Republicans' insane need to pander to bigots and racists, we're unlikely to see it without a completely different Congress.

I'm writing about Lidiane because she puts a very human face on what they're doing when they block the DREAM Act. I wonder if any of these crazy Republican candidates could gaze into her frightened, hurting eyes, and tell her she has to go back to a country she doesn't even know. I think they could, and that should concern us all.

Congress forced a clause into the Affordable Care Act which excluded undocumented immigrants from coverage. The exclusion wasn't simply from federal funds for subsidies. They are barred from purchasing insurance on the state-based exchanges and the national exchange. Barred. Even if they pay with their own funds. Barred.

Today a 15-year old child is in a hospital in Florida, suffering from severe injuries, bereft of her family, in Rick Scott's state. What will become of her?

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