After losing House, Democrats will try new strategy: bipartisanshipSo much for those vaunted claims that Obama Democrats were "post-partisan." The truth is that the only way to ensure "bipartisanship" is to deny the Democrats a majority in Congress or the Senate--or eject them from the White House.
Saturday, January 08, 2011
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From the January 5th Washington Post:
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http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0210/Pelosi_bill_will_be_partisan_with_or_without_GOP_votes.html?showall
PELOSI: BILL WILL BE BIPARTISAN EVEN WITHOUT GOP VOTES
February 28, 2010
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she doesn't need Republican votes to claim a bipartisan win on health care.
"The bill can be bipartisan, even though the votes might not be bipartisan," Pelosi said in a taped interview airing Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."
"We were all very hopeful that we could come to consensus" a year ago at the first White House health care summit with Republicans, the California Democrat said. At the time, Democrats were pushing for a public option to compete with private insurance coverage.
"A year later we're closer to what Republicans were suggesting at that time -- an exchange, and not a public option," Pelosi said. "This legislation has accommodated many of their views. Even though we may not get their votes, but make -- accommodates many of their views."
"One of the reasons we didn’t have a bill in the fall is because the president wanted to give the Senate more time to arrive at bipartisanship...which he thought might be possible then," Pelosi said. "The House has said right from the start they were never going to vote for any bill."
The speaker made the case that the two parties have fundamentally different visions for health care reform, citing a Republican bill that only provides coverage to about 3 million Americans who lack it -- a far cry from the more than 30 million Democrats would cover.
"So we have a different value system here," Pelosi said. "But they have had plenty of opportunity to make their voices heard. And if they wanted to truly have bipartisan, bipartisanship is a two-way street."
And politics played a big part in this failure to garner GOP votes. The speaker said Republicans "have had a field day going out there and misrepresenting what’s in the bill. But that’s what they do."
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