By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 6th, 2011
On Wednesday, the newly-minted GOP-run U.S. House of Representatives passed a rules package intended to establish how the legislature will operate this year.
But perhaps a more correct measure of how Republicans will run the lower chamber of Congress is to be found in what they left out of their new rules.
A proposal put forth by Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) would have forced all House members to acknowledge, within fifteen days of taking office, whether they plan to use their generous, government-run health insurance plan.
Tellingly, the vote on Crowley’s simple suggestion was split along party lines, with Republicans opposed to the disclosure and Democrats in favor.
Neo-conservatives apparently believe taxpayer dollars should be spent to keep rich lawmakers healthy, but should never be ‘wasted’ on the taxpayers themselves.
The obvious double standard was gleefully pointed out by House Dems.
On MSNBC’s Hardball yesterday, Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee–the political party’s House fundraising arm–flatly accused Republicans of being little better than a pack of liars when it comes to government-run health care:
ISRAEL: Every Republican voted to hide their own government health care, while many of them are pledging to repeal health care for everyone else. So, you go from hypocrisy to hypocrisy – from broken promise to broken promise. And this is just the first day of the new Congress.
MATTHEWS: You mean, they didn’t want to admit that they’re taking health care?
ISRAEL: This is a very straightforward amendment that we offered, that, if you’re going to take government-sponsored health care and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, simply disclose. Let your constituents know that you are taking that government health care. Every single Republican voted to hide their health care–while many of them are pledging to repeal it for their constituents.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stated a similar sentiment on her Twitter page:
“House R’s voting to disclose if they’ve signed up for federal health benefits (as they try to repeal your coverage).”
We at The American Spark are shocked–shocked!–to see the party of George W. Bush show itself to be a group of bullsh*! artists.
