US healthcare reformers receive death threats

Democrat congressmen in the US have suffered death threats, vandalism and what appears to be one attempt to cause actual harm since the controversial health insurance reform bill was passed into law on Sunday night.

On Tuesday, a congressman's brother had a gas pipe at his home severed after his address was posted on the internet by members of the conservative 'Tea Party movement'.

Barack Obama's reform bill, which will bring America closer than it has ever been to universal healthcare, has divided US society, with loud and prolonged protests from those opposed to it. As congressmen arrived to vote on the bill on Sunday, one was spat at, another was called a "faggot" and a third a "nigger".

On Tuesday morning, with the bill now passed by a four-vote majority, the brother of the Democrat congressman Tom Perriello found that a pipe connecting a propane tank to an outdoor grill at his home had been cut. Bo Perriello has four children under the age of eight.

Just days earlier, members of the Tea Party movement had published Bo's address online, mistakenly believing it to be his brother's, with the suggestion that other members might like to "drop by". The FBI is investigating.

Other Democrats have reported receiving death threats. One, Michigan's Bart Stupak, was left an answering machine message from an anonymous woman who said: "There are millions of people across the country who wish you ill and all of those thoughts projected on you will materialise into something that's not very good for you."

In the last few days, bricks have been thrown through the office windows of Democrats in New York state, Kansas and Arizona. One bore the legend "No to Obama. No to Obomycare [sic]," while another was labelled: "Extremism in defense of liberty is not a vice."

As with the gas pipe incident, this vandalism was prefigured online. A conservative blogger in Alabama, Mike Vanderboegh, last week urged his readers seven times in one post to visit congressmen and "break their windows".

More sinisterly, Vanderboegh, who may be something of a fantasist but still enjoys several thousand visits each day, also wrote that the "elite... certainly do not hear the soft 'snik-snik' of cleaning rods being used on millions of rifle barrels in this country by people who have decided that their backs are to the wall".

Democrat, and leader of the House Majority, Steny H Hoyer, told the US media on Wednesday: "We've had very serious incidents that have occurred over the last 48, 72 hours. Anyone who feels at risk is getting attention from the proper authorities."

It also emerged today that some of the health reforms will have to go to the vote again in the US's lower house, the House of Representatives, a setback for the Democrats. The bill itself was signed into law by the President, but in order to have it passed by both houses, the Democrats had to couch amendments in a separate 'reconciliation bill' to go before the Senate (upper house).

Two technical errors were found in the bill this week - and as the wording had to be changed, the lower House will need to vote on it again. Democrats say they are confident this will not substantially affect the reforms, however. ·