Harry Reid Tells Pointless House repugicans, ‘We will not be extorted by tea party anarchists.’

 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid responded to the news the House repugicans are going to vote against Obamacare for a 43rd time by saying, “The American people will not be extorted by tea party anarchists.”
After House repugicans came out of their brainstorming session with the bright idea to keep trying to get rid of Obamacare, Reid said in a statement:

To be absolutely clear, the Senate will reject both the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of the medical device tax. After weeks of futile political games from repugicans, we are still at square one: repugicans must decide whether to pass the Senate’s clean CR, or force a Republican government shutdown. Senate Democrats have shown that we are willing to debate and vote on a wide range of issues, including efforts to improve the Affordable Care Act. We continue to be willing to debate these issues in a calm and rational atmosphere. But the American people will not be extorted by tea party anarchists.

Using the exact same language that the president used about being willing to debate anything was a nice touch, but Reid’s message is the same as it was yesterday, last week, last month, and last year. The ACA isn’t going anywhere.
Some Democrats have complained about the lack of leadership at the top of the party, but those complaints never had much merit. If you want to see what a party without leadership really looks like, check out what’s happening over on the repugican side of the street. Democrats aren’t going to give in. The entire House repugican premise is that if they just keep saying no, eventually Democrats will give in and give them what they want.
It seems lost on them that this approach has never worked. What happened each time that House repugicans have done this is that Democrats tell them to grow up, the pressure from the corporate interests and billionaires who fund repugican campaigns gets to be too much, and Boehner manages to cobble together just enough repugican support for Nancy Pelosi to pass a bill in the House that saves us all from disaster.
That’s how it always goes. So far, House repugicans are sticking to the script. They are going to continue to talk tough and pass something that won’t even be considered by the Senate. Democrats are saying no, and now we all will sit around and wait for the House repugicans to cave and pass a clean CR.
Democrats are unified. They have all the leadership, and they hold all of the cards. Once again, the country will be injured because House repugicans want no part of reality. Reid and Obama are leading, and Democrats should be proud to hear their leaders just say no.