As the shutdown showdown continues, I think it is instructive to put together a little list of the various things that democrats have refused to even discuss, or pass through the legislative process for no other reason besides sticking it to Republicans for their opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
Before the shutdown:
- They voted down a continuing resolution that fully funded all of government except the small funding going to the administration of the ACA (the defund measure)
- They voted down a continuing resolution that fully funded all of government but delayed implementation of the entire ACA by one year
- They voted down a continuing resolution that fully funded all of government but delayed just the individual mandate (to give the exchanges time to work properly before forcing everyone to use them) and repealed, permanently, an unpopular medical device tax that many democrats have spoken out against since the passage of the ACA
- They voted down one last effort to reach compromise – a move to create a joint congressional committee to draft a CR which would reflect some compromise between the houses as is prescribed in the legislative governing rules (so…they wouldn’t even TALK about it)
- They voted against funding the Veterans Administration
- They voted against funding DC Government services despite urgent pleas from the lone DC representative – a democrat
- They rejected the funding of the National Parks (long a pet project of democrats and funding opposed by the GOP during lean financial times – offered anyway as a sign of good faith)
- They shot down an attempt to fund the department of defense in full (relying instead on a minimalist appropriation for military personnel to get paid…and nothing more)
- They refused to even bring a motion passed by the house to the floor of the senate that would have funded the National Institutes of Health fully.
- When that failed, the house passed a bill simply to fund cancer research and Reid shot it down using procedural rules.
- And then, with a tropical cyclone bearing down on New Orleans…they voted no to funding FEMA
- EDIT TO ADD: In their latest quest to kick babies and punch women, the GOP passed a measure to fund the Special Supplemental Nutrition for Women program. Dems refused it. #LiberalWarOnWomen
- They were afraid of the scope of the law and wanted to get negative messaging out (and went about it the wrong way)
- NO ONE KNEW WHAT WAS IN THE DAMNED THING SO NO ONE WAS ARGUING ABOUT IT IN AN INFORMED WAY. And that includes democrats too. They made up a lot of fairy-tale crap that the GOP knew would be wrong along the way.