There’s been some debate, here and elsewhere, about why exactly so many Republicans balked on the bipartisan effort to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). The president’s veto, and the GOP’s reluctance to override the veto, just don’t make a lot of sense. It couldn’t have been the spending, because the bill is paid for. It couldn’t have been the arguments the Republicans actually presented, because they all turned out to be patently false.
Could it have been because the Dems were mean to them?
In a closed-door meeting before the last vote on the children’s health care bill, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer appealed for the support of about 30 wavering Republican lawmakers. What he got instead was a tongue-lashing, participants said.
The GOP lawmakers, all of whom had expressed interest in a bipartisan deal on the SCHIP legislation, were furious that the Democratic leader from Maryland had not reached out to them in a more serious way early on. They also criticized him and Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois for failing to stop his allies outside Congress from running attack ads in their districts, while they were discussing a bipartisan deal.
One GOPer who sniffled particularly loud about his maltreatment at the hands of House Dems was GOP Rep. Ric Keller of Florida, who complained: “They spent $1.5 million through their various shill outreach groups attacking me and a handful of my colleagues. But they did not spend five minutes to approach me to ask for my vote.”
Sweet Jeebus, the “hysterical party” strikes again. Keller might have voted to help low-income kids get healthcare, but those mean ol’ Dems didn’t say “please” first. It’s reminiscent of the time Newt Gingrich suggested he shut down the federal government in part because Clinton asked him to leave Air Force One from the back.
If the GOP is trying to look weak, it’s doing a great job.
Greg Sargent sets the record straight.
Hmmm. Those hyperpartisan and hypernasty House Dems wouldn’t reach out to Republicans, despite the fact that they were interested in a compromise? And they even ran ads criticizing the GOP position? How awful! How dare they do such a thing!
If GOPers were really interested in reaching an understanding with Dems, they had a funny way of showing it. Over a month ago, for instance, Keller accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi of “playing politics” while risking the health of “6 million children.” He blasted the Dems’ SCHIP plan as “socialized medicine” funded by a “gigantic tax increase.”
Another Republican who claimed to want to compromise with Dems on SCHIP, Rep. Tom Price, was similarly caustic in his hits on Dems early on, blasting the Dems’ SCHIP plan a month ago as having “nothing to do with our nation’s neediest children and everything to do with political posturing.”
And these gentle souls are now complaining that they didn’t support SCHIP because Dems were mean to them?
Look, members of Congress, all appearances to the contrary, are grown-ups. They discussed S-CHIP expansion for months. Some conservative Republican senators, including Grassley and Hatch, personally contacted Republican House members, urging them to support the compromise. GOP lawmakers who wanted to support the bill had several chances, and about a fifth of the House caucus broke party ranks to join Dems on this.
To hear Keller and his cohorts now, they might have been open to the compromise legislation, if only Dems had extended a personal invitation to vote for it.
Please. As we talked about a couple of weeks ago, all this does is reinforce the least flattering GOP caricature of all — these guys can’t govern, but they can fall onto a fainting couch like nobody’s business.
For years, Republicans worked to create the opposite reputation. They’re “tough.” This is the macho “daddy party.” This is a crowd that calls it like they see it, and doesn’t look back or apologize.
And yet, they’ve now spent the better part of a year whining, now going so far as to blame Dems’ outreach efforts for their opposition to S-CHIP.
It’s just sad.