Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) unloaded on Speaker of the House John Boehner on the Senate floor. Reid called Boehner’s lawsuit against President Obama a joke, a sham, and something that Judge Judy would throw out in a half a second.
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Majority Leader Reid spoke on the Senate floor:
Obamacare is helping Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. It is helping residents of blue states, red states and purple states. Just look at Kentucky, the home state of the Republican Leader. Well over 400,000 Kentuckians have signed up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act. And even Republicans love it. That same Commonwealth Fund survey I referenced earlier found that 74% of newly-insured Republicans are happy with their Obamacare health coverage.
But instead of embracing the good that Obamacare has done, and working with Democrats to address any necessary fixes, Republicans would rather file a frivolous lawsuit. Everybody knows that this lawsuit is a sham – a big show meant to appease the Tea Party radicals in the House of Representatives. One Yale law professor questioned why the lawsuit is receiving so much media attention, saying: “I see this every day now, being covered as if it’s real, as if it’s somehow not a joke.” Another law professor from Harvard said: “The lawsuit will almost certainly fail, and it should fail, for lack of Congressional standing.”
Just imagine how many lawsuits there would be if House Republicans could sue the President every time they disagreed with him about something! But there is no reasoning with the radical Republicans in the House. House Republicans would rather waste taxpayer dollars than accept the fact that their constituents – their very own neighbors – are benefitting from health care reform.
If a show trial is what House Republicans want, they should go talk to Judge Judy. I think even she would throw this case out in half a second. The United States Congress is no place for inane, politically-motivated litigation.
Enough is enough. The fight over Obamacare is over. The law is here to stay. And more importantly, Americans who are benefitting from the law want it to stay.
The old boxer Harry Reid wasn’t pulling any punches. No one outside of Republican strategists think that this lawsuit has more than a puncher’s chance in court, but a puncher’s chance is what the Republican Party has been reduced to. They have no record of accomplishments to run on. They have no positive achievements to take back to the voters. They can’t list one productive thing that they have done for the benefit of the American people.
Given the reality that Republicans have created for themselves, all they can do is try to distract the country with fantasy centered around lawsuits and potential impeachment. House Republican leaders don’t want to talk about impeachment, but the people who vote for Republicans in elections do. Republican voters are craving impeachment, and even if Boehner doesn’t want to go there, we all know that the Speaker is helplessly guided by the extremist breezes that are blowing through his party.
This Boehner lawsuit is a waste of time and taxpayer dollars on a gimmick. It is a publicity stunt that should be laughed out of court. The best way to know what Judge Judy thinks of the suit is to ask her, but I have a difficult time believing that Judge Judy would buy John Boehner peeing on her leg and telling her that it’s raining.
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
