Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi must have thought she was going to have an easy interview with PBS News Hour’s Judy Woodruff. This is PBS. They’re supposed to be on our side, right? There’s talk of another coronavirus stimulus dominating the Hill. The August recess has been put on hold until an agreement is hashed out. Pelosi said there will be a compromise, but Woodruff’s line-by-line questioning on where common ground could be found was met with frustration from the top Democrat. Actually, it was something of a meltdown, with Pelosi accusing Woodruff of shilling for Republicans. It was quite entertaining.
Woodruff responded by saying she was just playing devil’s advocates, noting that the GOP had offered to extend unemployment benefits, that they too have monies allocated for schools and food programs, and that money passed in the spring during the first string of coronavirus relief bills has yet to be spent.
“Well, if you want to be an advocate for them, Judy, let’s know what the facts are,” exploded Pelosi.
All Woodruff was trying to do was to find out the position of congressional Democrats, which continues to be in perpetual tantrum mode over the 2016 election. Woodruff shattered Pelosi’s well-laid plans of trying to smear the GOP as Neanderthals over this relief bill. The GOP wants less spending, but Woodruff noted they are willing to show flexibility in the negotiations. Still, for Democrats, it’s ‘orange man, bad’ for all things. Moreover, given this train wreck of an interview, it’s pretty clear that Democrats aren’t willing to compromise at the moment.
This very well could be what has happened in past relief bills. The Senate Republicans propose something, House Democrats go ballistic, Senate Democrats delay, and then, House Democrats delay. Then, there are more delays, and finally, a bill is passed that was pretty much exactly what Senate Republicans were proposing on day one.
Real Clear Politics transcribed some snippets:
PELOSI: No, there's no in between. There's no in between.
The fact is that, since we passed our bill, which was 11 weeks ago tomorrow, 3.3 million more people have gone on to the infected list; of those infected, 70,000 more people have died.
And the Republicans said they were going to push the pause button. And they did. And then, last week, they came up with some piecemeal thing.
So, the — we're not saying to the American people, more people are infected, more people are dying, more people are uninsured, more children are hunger-insecure, or food-insecure, and guess what? We're going to cut your benefit.
WOODRUFF: Well, Madam Speaker, the — I mean, with all due respect, you called it piecemeal, and yet what the Republicans were offering was a short-term extension that would have allowed these extra unemployment benefits to keep flowing. Democrats said no.
PELOSI: Well, it would have been finished by now.
They were talking about a few — actually, the fact is, they didn't have anything that they could pass in the Senate on their own side. So, if the press wants to say, well, they offered this, they offered that, they — you can't offer something you don't have.
We have a bill. It's called the HEROES Act. It passed 11 weeks ago tomorrow. It would have saved lives.
They have nothing. They can't even pass — they have said, we have 20 members who won't vote for anything. So, what, we're talking rhetoric, or are we talking reality about what one side or the other is offering?
And if they wanted to offer some piecemeal thing for one week that does not — you only do that when you're on the verge of closing, of passing a bill and having it signed into law. Otherwise, it's just showbiz.
Yeah, Democrats sure know a lot about showbiz. Woodruff also asked about the price tag for this relief package, which would add another $3 trillion in spending, which Pelosi deflected by saying the GOP wasn’t concerned about deficits with their 2017 tax cut, which by the way, benefitted the middle class, but that’s another fact Nancy and her legion of liberal idiots on the Hill continue to ignore. We’re in for some grade-A theater, folks. Meanwhile, Americans are suffering and Democrats are just salivating over putting families through the meatgrinder again to generate more pressure on the Trump White House.
(H/T Kim Strassel)