Nancy Pelosi Reveals There Are ’70 Poison Pills’ in Current Government Funding Bill

Appearing on CNN’s “The Lead” with Jake Tapper, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), said of the government spending bill under consideration that “There are probably still 70 poison pills in the bill that we can’t live with.”

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Watch the interview courtesy of CNN:

Asked if there will be a government spending bill, Pelosi answered,

“The Democrats are determined that we will not have a government shutdown. If we need a one-week extension in order to pass it on the floor, the legislative part of it, I think we’re OK with that.”

This agrees with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said Wednesday, that “The theory was if we could reach an agreement, we would give them next week to finish it, the paperwork.”

And that’s a good thing: The Hill reported late Wednesday night that,

“Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, introduced the one-week bill to fund the government through May 5, predicting leadership would announce a long-term deal shortly.”

So while Republicans and Democrats have agreed to keep trying, and that progress is being made, there is a big “but” here, however, as Pelosi explained:

“But if we don’t resolve our differences and it’s just another postponement and another postponement we’re not good for that. We just want to get it done.”

Funding for Obamacare seems to be an almost insurmountable obstacle as Lindsey Graham said Wednesday of Democratic demands for subsidies paid to insurance companies,

“This bill I think is a piece of crap. And I would not, if I were President Trump, be told by the Democrats you’ve got to keep making payments that are of questionable legality.”

Never mind that according to the United Nations, repealing Obamacare is a violation of international law. Talk about questionable legality.

Republicans have followed Donald Trump’s lead in claiming Obamacare is dead, and now they’re doing their level best to make that claim true. Obamacare would be just fine if they stopped trying to kill it.

You would think then that Obamacare is the biggest obstacle for Republicans and Democrats to overcome. However, asked if funding for Obamacare was the major sticking point, Pelosi answered, “There are probably still 70 poison pills in the bill that we can’t live with.”

She told Tapper,

“There’s Progress we need to make on mineworkers…We have issues relating to what the president said. We’re going to have clean air and clean water and he takes away all the money out of the opportunity to do that, so we want to deal with that…we want to improve the bill.”

Her reservations are understandable. The current Republican position is that we destroy our water and air and then make up for it by denying Americans insurance to pay for the resultant medical issues.

Pelosi emphasized again that “We have some poison pills we want to get rid of…” before reiterating Democratic opposition to what Trump calls “the WALL” saying,

“The wall — kick that can down the road. And we still would like to have some more certainty in terms of the funding for the Affordable Care Act, but we’re on a good path.”

Chuck Schumer categorically stated earlier in the day that the funding bill “will not include any funding for the wall, plain and simple,” and where the wall and Obamacare are concerned, Democrats appear to be standing firm.

Pelosi reminded Tapper that Democrats still have enough votes in the Senate to block the bill. It remains to be seen whether Republicans will be willing to shut down the government on behalf of their president to support repeal of a healthcare bill that is more popular than either one of them.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.