Obama Repeatedly Reminds House GOP Of Their Zero Stimulus Votes

In a meeting with House Republicans at the White House Thursday, President Obama reminded the minority that the last time he reached out to them, they reacted with zero votes -- twice -- for his stimulus package. And then he reminded them again. And again. And again.

A GOP source familiar with the meeting said that the president was extremely sensitive -- even "thin-skinned" -- to the fact that the stimulus bill received no GOP votes in the House. He continually brought it up throughout the meeting.

Obama also offered payback for that goose egg. A major overhaul of the health care system, he told the Republican leadership, would be done using a legislative process known as reconciliation, meaning that the GOP won't be able to filibuster it.

Congress has until October 15 to pass health care or student lending reform under the normal process. If it doesn't, reconciliation can be used to eliminate the 60-vote requirement.

Democratic aides said that Obama made clear to the GOP leadership that he would continue to work in a bipartisan way, but that they didn't have veto power over health care policy. GOP aides, however, said that Obama was pretty clear that reconciliation would be used. "From what was told me, it sounded more like he would almost definitely use reconciliation for healthcare. I don't think he hedged much," said one.

Another GOP aide said that Obama and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a back-and-forth about the zero votes. Obama argued that House Republicans had made a "strategic decision" to oppose the stimulus, while Boehner countered that Obama hadn't accepted House Republican input on the bill.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pushed back against the decision to use reconciliation. "As he told the President during a meeting at the White House on Thursday, Senator McConnell and his colleagues want to be part of the solution to reforming our country's health care system and expects the majority party to include Republicans in that process. Sen. McConnell wants a bipartisan solution," said McConnell spokesman Don Stewart.

"Fast-tracking a major legislative overhaul such as health care reform or a new national energy tax without the benefit of a full and transparent debate does a disservice to the American people," said McConnell in a statement. "And it would make it absolutely clear they intend to carry out their plans on a purely partisan basis."

Ryan Grim is the author of the forthcoming book This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America

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Comments

[JanSP1971]

It's about time a democrat stood toe to toe with the republican party. I am tired of them doing and saying anything they want and the democrates just letting them get away with it. We didn't fight them hard enough during the Bush years and look how that worked out. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! President Obama the American people are behind you. We spoke loud and clear in November that it was time for a change, now go get it done with or without the party of NO!

[Paulette Constantino]

Right on, sister. Now that's what I'm talkin' about!!

[frybread]

Poor little Republicans. It's hard to be the minority party when you still want to act like the majority, isn't it?

[bo245f]

Republicans say one thing in public but do and say something totally different in private. They o not what this aministration to succeed. The republicans complain about positions not yet filled but they don't tell you that they are holding up the nominations. They DO NOT PUT COUNTRY FIRST.

[biglefty]

the tea party people were sad little Fox robots

[tom90069]

i love this guy. put up or shut up.

[DaveVDave]

Probably a telepromter issue. Maybe he just reads anything put on there like Ron Burgundy?

http://www.TheCommentDepot.com

[Jamie Kowalski]

*crickets*

[kepary]

LOL

[tom90069]

was that supposed to be funny?

[munsell10yr]

If you can't spell "teleprompter", don't even try, wingnut.

[the-lexicon]

not to rain on your parade, but it's actually spelled "telepromptr". It's a trademark name, much like "kleenix" means tissue facial wipes.

lexicon

[DMEEPhD]

Good for Obama! It's about time that he kicked these Rethugs in the privates. They're like the schoolyard bully; you can't reason with them, you can't negotiate with them, you can't count on them. You can only hit back. Hard.

[Endersdragon]

Republicans aren't the schoolyard bully. They are the weaker kid who says "Not my ****ing lunch money". But you are right about Obama then kicking them in the privates.

[Shannon Hoodswain]

Well, we should try to be understanding...the Republicans were only just waking up from the election and they were still very cranky and tired. Perhaps someone should have offered them a 'juice cup' or a 'binky'. Now that they are awake they might begin to realize that the time to speak up really was before Bush took his second term. Their self serving silence has hurt them in the long run. Lessons like this are very hard to swallow and even harder keep down.

[KyleCope]

Maybe he didn't mean to say it repeatedly, he just got ahead of himself:

http://www.politico.com/singletitlevideo.html?bcpid=1155201977&bctid=21152187001

[Leigh Hebbard]

If Sen. McConnell was truly interested in doing what was best for the American people, the the Republicans had more than eight years in which to hammer out a revision of the health care system. Clearly, however, neither he nor most of his Republican pals are interested in doing what is best for the American people. They wish only to do what is best for their cronies in the pharma industry and in the AMA. Ugh!

[Louee]

McConnell is my senator. I know exactly what he wants, and it has nothing to do with bipartisanship. It has to do with bringing the pharmaceut­ical/healt­hcare lobbyists' agenda to the legislative table. I don't trust a word he says. Obama should act accordingly.

[dragonlady620]

BINGO!

[NEnglish]

The republicans would love to water down any health care policy in hopes that it will fail in implementation. That is their stated purpose - insure that all government policies fail in order to shrink government. If their stated purpose was to pursue good government policies, they would deserve a seat at the table.

[BowlingForRevenge]

Paybacks a BEE- ACH...ain't it Boehner?

[oldguru]

The Republican complaint that they did not have time to read the stimulus bill is bogus. They all have staff to read legislation and report to them. They never planned to vote for it under any circumstances. All the Republicans have done since they lost the election is obstruct and threaten world war three if they do not get their way. They have put themselves in a really bad place with their childish behavior, and it is destroying the Republican party. There is less and less sympathy for them. Obama is right in telling them that they can grow up or get out of the way.

[javadawg]

Conservatism and the stupidity that came along with it is dead. Leave them out of the process. They have been asked to come and participate and all they have shown is a propensity to act like petulant children with their "my way or the highway" attitudes. I was all for Obama including the GOP in things, but all he gets is childish snubs and stupidity. Obama - leave them out of the discussion - it seems all the ideas they had were played out the last few years and all of them made our country worse off. GOP - go out side and play with the rest of the children - let the adults work now.

[sreggie]

Obama is all about bipartisanship when everyone agrees with him. Perhaps the fact that no one had time to read or depate the stimulus bill is the reason no Republicans voted for it. Remember the mock outrage regarding AIG bonuses? Who approved all that? And then the stampede to condemn and demonize every AIG employee in the most juvenile terms, while trampling the Constitution. And then there was Dodd and Frank covering their butts amid the "controversy."

Of course all the above is ignored because Obama is deemed to be the "savior" of our planet by most of the folks writing and blogging here. Rarely do you get any substantive review of his policy decisions or methods.

My way or the highway? Gee that sounds familiar, doesn't it?

[pbarba1969]

Wow it looks like thge Republicans are a little bit PO'd that the Democrats are treating them the same way as they treated the Dems back in the Bush years.

The difference was this Preisident did reach out to the Republicans and they gave him the finer, hoping he would fail and his popularity would go down. Well he didn't and now they want in, and they aren't welcome...

Payback is a bitch...

[Roy49]

You know what sounds really familiar? Your rhetoric. President Obama isn't the savior of anything! the Republican and the Bush administration crapped all over the constitution and the American people. Anybody coming in would be a savior if they did anymore than the Bush administation. Effin' Republicans trashed everything and are acting like a bunch of little girls because they couldn't continue to get their way so they say NO to everything! And oh no, the Democrats (led by Obama) might even be able to pull the conservatives asses out the whole they buries themselves in! That would be terrible wouldn't it? You screw up sh*t and we fix up your filthy mess! And what the hell are you talking about with the AIG bonuses? AIG got that initial money from the Bush administration with NO constraints on it what so ever! They did what ever they wanted, gave bonuses to whomever they wanted and crapped all over America. Now that the Obama administration called them on it everybody starts scattering and making BS excuses! You need to stop trying to rewrite the news Reggie and start reading it!

[NEnglish]

You can't compare republicans to little girls. I have a little girl at home and she, at 4 years old, is a much better problem solver and communicator than the republican leadership.

[nothingmusic42]

you seem to forget that obama cut millions in spending from the stimulus bill to appease the repugs, and yet the repugs still voted 100% against it. no matter what concessions obama makes to the party of "no", they will vote against him. but it's all obama's fault, for not catering to party that the voters fired.
the repugs got fired, now stop whining about how mean obama is for not listening to the losers.

[julia23]

Did you even read the article before you commented?

There is a lot of discussion about Obama's policies going on, you just haven't found them. Just because you can't find it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

[Subterfuge]

The fable that Obama has not been bipartisan is a blatantly fabricated strategy by the GOP that was put into action before debate on the stimulus bill even began.

What was one of the most promising elements of Obama becoming president? A true respect of multiple points of view in order to move forward, heal a divided nation, and get things done in a way that the majority of us could support.

This actually gave the GOP an amount of control over whether or not he would be successful... but to make it happen they had to completely obstruct any and all desperately needed solutions to our many problems in one of the most critical moments in our nation's history. Destroy the nation to save the party.

Remember, the package was actually presented with tax cuts included that the conservatives wanted and at first there were a few republicans willing to meet in the middle. Suddenly those few republicans shifted to a no vote at the exact same time-- they were late on getting the memo.

Republicans: My [party] right or wrong.