There are reports that a draft of the House's Labor/Health and Human Services appropriations bill contains deep cuts to heating assistance for the poor, requires the repeal of a major provision of the health care law that will help provide assistance for disabled people, halts implementation of the entire law until the Supreme Court determines the constitutionality of its individual insurance mandate, and slashes funding for Planned Parenthood and public broadcasting.
Needless to say, the Democrats in both the House and the Senate say the bill is DOA. Of course, it needs only a majority vote to pass in the House where the GOP holds a majority. On the other hand, in the Senate the Democrats hold a majority. And as you know, a bill must pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by the President to become a law. This draft bill will never become law, but if it does pass out of the House and doesn't pass the Senate, the federal Labor/Health and Human Services department will not have any funding leading to a partial government shutdown.
I'm thinking back to last November when the GOP was swept into power in the House on the promise to create jobs. Tell me how this action creates even 1 job. Tell me how the time they are spending on this draft bill, that will never become law, moves the country forward in any way, or does anyting at all to create the envronment where jobs will be created. The GOP is good at trying to force the government to shut down, at job creation, not so much.
To those of you who vote, realize that if you chose to put the GOP in control of other parts of the government, as they have demonstrated since last November, the GOP will waste their time on social issues that punnish middle class and poor, sick citizens rather than focus on public polciy to move our country forward for the good of the whole society. Look no further than the last 12 months and see what has happened in the House and in numerous State legislatures to see where the GOP wants to take our coutry.
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