Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:41 pm
Democrats gave a presser in response to Speaker John Boehner’s presser over the House Republicans’ fake deal full of poison pills. As I explained earlier, the House’s proposal is meant to derail the Senate deal, whilst avoiding taking any responsibility for their destruction of the country.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said “This is a very big deal.” House Republicans are being “reckless, radical and irresponsible” by “sabotaging a good-faith effort” from Senate. She clarified the other problem Boehner faces, “What you saw here… was a Speaker who didn’t have the votes for his proposal.” This means that Boehner intentionally sabotaged the Senate deal for no reason other than to appease the Tea Party.
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Indeed, Robert Costa says the House is tweaking their proposal to become more conservative in order to get to 217 (Costa says 218; I’m using 217 because they don’t have the full members but it’s the same concept):
What's in the works now: adding FULL Vitter language to House plan, prob only way to get 218+
— Robert Costa (@robertcostaNRO) October 15, 2013
Matthew Yglesias called the narrower Vitter Amendment proposed this morning (and already a loser) “… a bizarre idea, government by trolling.” So there will be more trolling now. I’m sure you’re not surprised.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) wasn’t impressed either. He pulled no punches calling Boehner out for saving his job over the country, “I’m very disappointed with John Boehner who would once again try to preserve his role at the expense of this county.”
Reid continued, “Let’s be clear: the House legislation will not pass the Senate.” He explained, “Extremists in the House are attempting to torpedo progress in the Senate.”
Boehner knew Democrats would never accept this deal, and in calling all of this attention to a deal he hasn’t actually hammered out yet and does not have his own party’s full support on yet, Boehner was trying to duck responsibility for the impending default. Nancy Pelosi is having none of that, and if Boehner keeps this up, he had best look elsewhere to be saved the next time he needs to pass something for his party.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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