Rep. David Scott: Healthcare debate getting ‘very, very dangerous’

The debate over healthcare reform is getting “very, very dangerous” when it reaches the point of swastikas being painted on lawmakers’ offices, Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) said Wednesday.

Scott said he was “simply appalled” by the swastikas painted on his office this week in a vandal’s attack.

“My staff woke me up in the morning and said what was on there and then as soon as I got to the office I saw it, I was just simply appalled,” Scott said of the attack during an appearance on CNN.

“When you reach that point to go — and this is how this individual wanted to express their concern about this health care debate, this is very, very dangerous,” he added.

Scott said that his office had received letters containing racial epithets and other attacks on President Obama in the heated August debate over healthcare reform.

“I mean, this is just outrageous,” he said. “It has no place in this debate.”

“There is bubbling up under this debate, unfortunately, the overtones that this presents of hate, of racism, of all of these things,” Scott added.

Scott laid blame for the harsh tone of the August debate at the feet of talk radio show Rush Limbaugh and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who he accused of mobilizing the angry base now manifesting itself at town hall meetings.