Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Finance Committee and Senate Republican Leadership, today issued this statement following the release of the White House’s health care reform bill:
“The only thing that has changed about this health care proposal is its return address. President Obama has gone behind closed doors to combine the bills passed by the House and Senate, both of which were overwhelmingly rejected by the American people, to produce yet another spending bill that will undoubtedly suffer the same fate, as well,” Sen. Cornyn said.
If the President is so tone deaf or arrogant as to deny a fresh start to his health care/insurance legislation, then where are the Republicans to begin? If reconcilation is not point blank ruled out as a device to push through a throughly unwanted bill then how are the Republicans to feel as though this coming together by both sides is anything other than a photo op for President Obama? It is simply a staged event so that the talking points from the Democrats can include that he listened to "all sides" of the debate. Yeah, right.
The lastest written effort from the President is posted online and is essentially the bill that was passed by the Senate in December. You will remember the dramatic run up to the Christmas holiday, with wheeling and dealing galore to secure the necessary 60 vote minimum. No Republicans voted for the bill.
There is movement in the Senate for the 60 votes required to break a filibuster to be brought down to the 51 vote mark. Now that the Democrats no longer hold a 60 member majority, they are hoping to lower the traditional standard for such a vast, sweeping reform and only need 51 votes to send it to the reconcilation process with the House. It would be unprecedented for such a change in our economy to be moved forward wit reconcilation. Is this the change we can all believe in? It looks more like traditional ham handed Chicago politics to American voters. This explains the lowest numbers yet for this president and for such a vastly unpopular Congress, too.
Is it any wonder that popular thought is beginning to realize this president is likely to be a one-term president?
No comments:
Post a Comment