Here’s a Washington story to warm Americans’ hearts.
Now the real story of Washington feuding over Obamacare (“Affordable” Care Act) and the budget ceiling are revealed.
Last July 17, in a private meeting between House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Boehner put the heat on the demure senator. Reid was asked outright to agree to a short-term deal to keep the government funded at sequester-level spending.
According to eyewitnesses at the meeting, although Reid was hesitant, he went along with the plan because it came with a pledge from Boehner he would not put any language into the continuing resolution that defunded the “Affordable” Care Act.
Fast forward three months.
Boehner puts language into the House’s original legislation concerning Obamacare which led a Reid spokesman, Adam Jentleson, to say Monday morning that Boehner has a “credibility problem.”
Thus began the real fight.
Jettleson went on to say, “From refusing to let the House vote on a bill that was his idea in the first place, to decrying health-care subsidies for members of Congress and staff that he worked for months to preserve, to stating that the House doesn’t have the votes to pass a clean CR at current spending levels, there is now a consistent pattern of Speaker Boehner saying things that fly in the face of the facts or stand at odds with his past actions.”
He continued, “Americans across the country are suffering because Speaker Boehner refuses to come to grips with reality. Today, Speaker Boehner should stop the games and let the House vote on the Senate’s clean CR so that the entire federal government can re-open within twenty-four hours.”
There is no secret that no love is lost between Reid and Boehner. Their personal feud has now spilled out in a very public format the past week and into the seventh full day Monday.
But there are two sides to every story contrary to the rules of most in the Obama-loving media.
“Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed, default is ten days away, and Sen. Reid is giving interviews about his re-election campaign in Nevada in 2016,” a senior GOP aide said, referencing Politico, Obama’s favorite news source.
The Senate Democrats are screaming that Reid made a deal and they are sticking with that story. They say Boehner agreed to a concession by not pushing to repeal or replace the sequester cuts in a deal to avert a government shutdown.
Michael Steel, a Boehner spokesman and former head of the Republican National Committee responded to the charges saying that passing a spending bill at levels required by law known as The Budget Control Act, which put the sequester in place, is not a concession.
He said, “The federal government is shut down because Democrats refuse to negotiate,” and the debt limit is right around the corner. “A ‘clean’ debt limit increase can’t pass the Senate, let alone the House. It’s time for some Washington Democrat to step up, act like an adult, and start talking about how we reopen the government, provide fairness for the American people under Obamacare, and deal with the drivers of our debt and deficits.”
He continued, They’ll also push various whip counts that show as many as 21 Republican members of the House who have publicly come out in support for passing a “clean” CR to re-open the government, which they say counters Boehner’s assertion Sunday that he does not have the votes in the House for such a measure.”
His comments were countered by a Democratic aide who said, “The government is currently shut down because Speaker Boehner refuses to let the House vote on a bill that was his idea.”
The sandbox grows bigger with more talking heads each day.
