Cry me a river, will ya?
The president blasted Republicans who have effectively threatened a government shutdown if "Obamacare" continues as planned. Conservative lawmakers have pledged to oppose renewed government funding, when the tab comes due to Congress this fall in the form of an expired funding measure, if the next funding bill includes money for the Affordable Care Act.
"A lot of Republicans seem to believe that if they can gum up the works and make this law fail, they'll somehow be sticking it to me. But they'd just be sticking it to you," Obama said, accusing Republicans of wanting either to harm sick Americans or to harm the U.S. economy.
The law was passed without Republican input or votes. Republicans are simply practicing politics in using legal methods to oppose what they believe is a terrible law. This isn't about the president no matter how much he wants it to be; or how much Senate Majority Leader Reid wants it to be about race rather than politics.
This is what democracy looks like, people.
And hey, let's recall another issue where one party used legal means to get their way after they changed their mind about legislation they once enthusiastically supported but later decided was wrong. After voting to go to war with Iraq, Congressional Democrats led efforts to force us out of the war they once backed by using the power of appropriations:
President Bush is warming up his veto muscles after the Senate passed a war funding bill Thursday that sets a deadline for withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq by next April.
The 51 votes cast for the bill are nowhere near the 67 needed to override a veto, which Bush says he will deliver swiftly. The House passed the same measure on a 218-208 vote Wednesday night.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said the measure funds U.S. troops in the field while acknowledging that the four-year-old war needs a political, not military, solution.
"No one wants this nation to succeed in the Middle East more than I do," Reid said. "But I know that after four years of mismanagement and incompetence by this administration in the war in Iraq, there is no magic formula, no silver bullet that will lead us to the victory we all desire."
But Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said demanding a withdrawal while U.S. commanders are claiming progress in pacifying the Iraqi capital would hand a victory to the al Qaeda terrorist network, which has taken root in Iraq.
Funny, Reid didn't act like he desired victory. Nor did the Senate Democrats when they not so subtly accused General Petraeus of lying (Senator Clinton's "willing suspension of disbelief" comment about the general's testimony is only the most memorable) when he reported progress in the surge later that summer.
Luckily, that Democratic effort just as the surge offensive was kicking in failed, and we defeated our enemies in Iraq, giving Iraq a chance at a better future. We failed to stay and now find the Iraqis appealing for our help to defeat a surge of al Qaeda violence, but that's another complaint altogether.
Democrats may have been wrong in their opposition, but they claimed they were doing it for good reasons. Dissent was holy. Hell, dissent in war was downright patriotic if you listened to them.
But now? When the issue is a domestic policy issue? A policy issue that Republicans never supported? Now opposition is just downright mean spirited. And possibly racist.
But that's politics, too. I'm sure our press corps will call the Democrats on their false charges, right? Dissent on mere domestic policy is holy and patriotic, right?
UPDATE: The really hilarious thing about the president's charge of Republican obstruction is that the Obama administration is delaying the act all on its own without any Republican help.
It's like the president wants to harm sick Americans, or something.
