In another sham vote that was designed to do nothing more than win the PR war, House Republicans voted to restore funding to the already funded WIC program, 244-164.
22 Democrats joined with House Republicans in voting for the resolution. All other Democrats voted no.
House Republicans are still trying to fool the American people into believing that they really want to fund the government. The reason why this vote was a sham was that WIC has enough funding to last through the month of October. The National WIC Association strongly came out against the Republican resolution to restore funding, “Funding the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) in this piecemeal, short-term, stop-gap manner is not an acceptable solution. WIC has sufficient funds to operate through the month of October giving Congress more than sufficient time to pass a “clean” continuing resolution followed by the already marked-up full year FY-2014 House and Senate Agriculture Appropriations bills to fund WIC and the other critical child nutrition programs through the end of the 2014 fiscal year.”
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Republicans like Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) took to the House floor to literally scream that this vote was about the children. What about the children? However, it is difficult to take the House Republicans concern for women and children seriously when earlier this year they voted to cut spending on WIC so deeply that 375,000 to 425,000 eligible low income women and children will be thrown off the program.
This vote was the latest move in the failed Republican strategy to try to make Democrats look bad. It is almost hysterical to watch Republicans trying to sell themselves as the party of compromise after they have spent every waking moment of the Obama years rejecting and refusing all compromise.
Republicans can’t escape the fact that they are the ones who demanded changes to the ACA. They are the ones who linked an unrelated issue to funding the government. This is their shutdown. No amount of PR piecemeal funding votes will win the day for them, when they could put an end to this crisis immediately by simply voting to open the government.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
