By this point I should be used to McCain LYING about what's going on in Washington these days. Most recently he lied about ever seeing someone OTHER than his bosom buddy Joe LIEberman be denied 30 seconds to finish reading a statement. His latest shtick is lying about President Obama's attempts at bi-partisanship. President Obama's attempts at bi-partisanship are the reason why some of us believe we are getting a weaker bill. Instead of trying to work with the Democrats, the Republicans simply OBSTRUCT until they can obstruct no more. They use lies to distort what legislation does and does not say. They continuously try to scare the public out of supporting something that would largely be good for the country.
Let's start at the beginning. The first big thing President Obama tried to do with the American Reinvestment Act.
Remember when the bill was being written, and all of the negotiating going on? Remember how President Obama was meeting with Republicans and taking their ideas into account? And remember what happened when it came time to vote?
Without a single Republican vote, President Obama won House approval on Wednesday for an $819 billion economic recovery plan as Congressional Democrats sought to temper their own differences over the enormous package of tax cuts and spending.
The latest on President Obama, the new administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.
As a piece of legislation, the two-year package is among the biggest in history, reflecting a broad view in Congress that urgent fiscal help is needed for an economy in crisis, at a time when the Federal Reserve has already cut interest rates almost to zero.
But the size and substance of the stimulus package remain in dispute, as House Republicans argued that it tilted heavily toward new spending instead of tax cuts.
All but 11 Democrats voted for the plan, and 177 Republicans voted against it. The 244-to-188 vote came a day after Mr. Obama traveled to Capitol Hill to seek Republican backing, if not for the package then on other issues to come.
January 28, 2009
So President Obama went and talked to the Republicans and tried to work with them, and what did they do? They spit in his face (not literally of course).
Then it came time for the Health Care Debate, where early on in the debate before a word was written we had this statement from Senator Jim DeMint:
"I can almost guarantee you this thing won't pass before August, and if we can hold it back until we go home for a month's break in August," members of Congress will hear from "outraged" constituents, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint said on the call, which was organized by the group Conservatives for Patients Rights.
"Senators and Congressmen will come back in September afraid to vote against the American people," DeMint predicted, adding that "this health care issue Is D-Day for freedom in America."
"If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him," he said.
So there you have it, the Republicans goal since the middle of July has been to "break him". That doesn't sound like a party of people who want to work with the President.
Indeed, look at all of this "wooing" we have to do just to get ONE Republican vote on ANYTHING (usually Senator Olympia Snowe).
And yet, we have Senator John McCain saying this bullshit (I'm guessing with a straight face because I haven't seen the interview):
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) ripped into the president on Sunday for abandoning his pledge to foster bipartisanship in Washington, accusing Obama of creating a more toxic political environment than that which existed during the Clinton administration.
"In some ways, of course, yeah," McCain told Fox News Sunday when asked if the Obama White House was more partisan than Bill Clinton's. "At least under Hillarycare they tried to seriously negotiate with Republicans. There has been no effort that I know of -- of serious across the table negotiations -- such as I have engaged in with other administrations. And that was the commitment that the president made."
Wrong Mr. McCain, what you want is for him to just bow down to your every wish and desire. I'm more inclined to believe that President Obama HAS gone to Republicans and tried to work with them, but instead has been met with this "party of no", no IDEAS that is. Just look at this exchange from Hardball this week:
MATTHEWS: You know, Senator Barrasso, the Republicans are very good at playing defense, and they wait for the Democrats to come out with a health care bill every once in a while. But it seems like they`re the party that really tries to insure the country, the whole country, really trying to go for universal coverage. Since Roosevelt, the Democrats have wanted something where all Americans would have a chance to be covered for health insurance and not have to end up in the emergency room.
Your party`s very good at finding mistakes on the Democratic side, but every time the Democrats don`t come up with a plan, you don`t either.
BARRASSO: I told you what we need to do...
MATTHEWS: The Republicans never have a plan for universal college, have you? Have you ever come out...
BARRASSO: The last time...
(CROSSTALK)
BARRASSO: ... we need health care reform. I told you last time I was on...
MATTHEWS: When are you going to come out with a proposal?
BARRASSO: ... we need 12 million people who can get insurance if they can just buy across state lines.
MATTHEWS: All right. OK.
BARRASSO: Why are they preventing that? They would buy insurance today, 12 million more Americans would be covered, if we just allowed them to buy insurance across state lines. Can`t do it.
MATTHEWS: You know, you don`t have a plan for universal coverage, do you?
BARRASSO: Not for universal coverage.
MATTHEWS: OK.
BARRASSO: But we have plans to help keep the cost of control under -- for health care -- and that was how this all started. That`s what the president said.
MATTHEWS: OK.
BARRASSO: We need to get the costs...
MATTHEWS: OK, well the American people...
BARRASSO: ... under control. This bill explodes...
MATTHEWS: ... want universal coverage.
So tell me, Mr. McCain, how is President Obama supposed to work with Republicans to get something even CLOSE to universal healthcare, when all you guys have is a plan that will only cover 12 million additional people?
Don't try to sell us that tired line about bi-partisanship, because President Obama has gone out of his way to include Republicans, even when he KNOWS the Repubicans will do nothing but play tired political games. The White House isn't what has become more partisan. Hell, I think the country WANTS them to be more partisan at this point. The partisanship is in Congress, where Republicans refuse to sit down at the table and do more than doodle on their placemats. I'm willing to concede that there may be some good ideas floating around in Republican Congress Critter's heads, but Republicans are too busy trying to "break" President Obama so they can re-take control of Congress.
I haven't even mentioned the endorsing of the birthers, the lying about "death panels" and other nonsense, ACORN, and all of the other bullshit that has come out of the Republicans. Let's not forget the ones about Obama being a Socialist/Celebrity. Or when Republican Congressmen went to other countries and actively tried to undercut President Obama's foreign policy.
So don't give me that bullshit about President Obama making Washington MORE partisan, in fact Mr. McCain, what the hell have YOU done to make it less partisan? It seems to be that all you do is stir the damn pot.