House Democrats on Thursday defended the president’s new health care law and slammed Republican attempts to fracture or delay it, even as GOP leaders were set to meet with President Obama on a new path forward to open the government and extend the nation’s borrowing authority for at least several weeks.
Rep. Steve Cohen, Tennessee Democrat, warned that Republican attempts to tie a short-term funding resolution to the president’s signature health law were setting a dangerous precedent.
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“Where does that stop?” he asked. “If we get a continuing resolution … and they ask the president to abolish the landmark legislation that he signed and that this Congress passed a few sessions ago, the next thing could be, ‘Well we’re not going to continue the government again unless you repeal the EPA,’ or, ‘We’re not going to do it unless you repeal the Fair Labor Standards Act.’ Or, maybe six months down the line, ‘We’re not going to [fund the government] unless you and Vice President Biden both resign.’”
He said those types of tactics would not be fair to Mr. Obama or to presidents in the future.
Meanwhile, voters are getting fed up with both parties.
An out-of-work government contractor waiting for the government to reopen called in to tell a C-SPAN host she was going to lose her car and home if things didn’t turn around soon.
“Right now,” she said, “I think my son’s third-grade class at his elementary school could do better” than the people running the country.
