House Republicans: We Opposed SCHIP Program Because Dems Were Mean To Us
October 30, 2007 -- 1:09 PM EST // //
This is pretty amusing. House Republicans have concocted a new explanation for why they voted against the SCHIP children's health care expansion despite the fact that it had bipartisan support in Congress and was backed by strong majorities of the American people.
The latest rationale: They voted against it because Democratic leaders were nasty to them. That's what angry House GOPers have now told Dem leaders in a private meeting on the Hill:
In a closed-door meeting before the last vote on the children’s health care bill, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer appealed for the support of about 30 wavering Republican lawmakers. What he got instead was a tongue-lashing, participants said.One GOPer who sniffled particularly loud about his maltreatment at the hands of House Dems was GOP Rep. Ric Keller of Florida, who complained: "They spent $1.5 million through their various shill outreach groups attacking me and a handful of my colleagues. But they did not spend five minutes to approach me to ask for my vote."The GOP lawmakers, all of whom had expressed interest in a bipartisan deal on the SCHIP legislation, were furious that the Democratic leader from Maryland had not reached out to them in a more serious way early on. They also criticized him and Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois for failing to stop his allies outside Congress from running attack ads in their districts, while they were discussing a bipartisan deal.
Hmmm. Those hyperpartisan and hypernasty House Dems wouldn't reach out to Republicans, despite the fact that they were interested in a compromise? And they even ran ads criticizing the GOP position? How awful! How dare they do such a thing!
If GOPers were really interested in reaching an understanding with Dems, they had a funny way of showing it. Over a month ago, for instance, Keller accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi of "playing politics" while risking the health of "6 million children." He blasted the Dems' SCHIP plan as "socialized medicine" funded by a "gigantic tax increase."
Another Republican who claimed to want to compromise with Dems on SCHIP, Rep. Tom Price, was similarly caustic in his hits on Dems early on, blasting the Dems' SCHIP plan a month ago as having "nothing to do with our nation’s neediest children and everything to do with political posturing."
And these gentle souls are now complaining that they didn't support SCHIP because Dems were mean to them?
Look, the larger story here is that Republicans have been working very hard to push a media narrative which has it that partisanship and obstinance on the part of Dems have prevented Congress from doing the people's business on a host of fronts, from children's health care to the Iraq War.
But here's the deal: There's such a thing as reality. And reality has it that on issues like these, House Dems represent the positions held by majorities of the American people, and House GOPers don't. Reality also has it that saying you want to compromise doesn't mean you're actually prepared to do something to compromise.
This is not to say that Dems have no role in pursuing compromises; of course they do. But let's not lose sight of what's going on here: Republicans are torpedoing one urgent legislative measure after another, even though the American public really, really wants them done. The reason SCHIP went down is because lots of Republicans voted against it. The reason various Iraq withdrawal measures have gone down is because lots of Republicans voted against them. A major test of our media will be whether they bite on the GOP version of events or whether they can keep their sights on what is actually happening.
To reach the homepage of this blog, click here. Comments section temporarily disabled.