Lawrence O'Donnell opened his show tonight saying Eric Cantor needs to go watch Schoolhouse Rock, which my friend Laffy over at The Political Carnival also made note of today. Apparently the Republican House Majority Leader is unaware of how a bill becomes a law.
As she noted, Taegan Goddard made this his Extra Bonus Quote of the Day:
"What this bill says is it reiterates again the deadline, and that the Senate should act before the deadline, and that's what the American people are expecting. The bill then says if the Senate does not act, then H.R. 1 [the House-passed bill] will be the law of the land."
-- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), quoted by the Washington Post, forgetting that bills -- even symbolic ones -- cannot become law without also passing the Senate and getting the President's signature.
I did not record this live so the beginning of my recording didn't catch all of this, but here's the clip from Schoolhouse Rock that Lawrence O'Donnell played part of during the beginning of his show tonight before he tore into Cantor in his opening segment above.
[oldembed src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mEJL2Uuv-oQ" width="425" height="349" resize="1" fid="21"]
I don't know about anyone else, but this game playing by Republicans over a shut down of the government when there are real lives at stake if it happens and their demands have been met and then some with the suffering they want to inflict on the American public while the rich keep their tax cuts is getting old in my book. I'm tired of hearing about who's going to cut more when any cuts to social programs are the last thing we need if we don't want our economy to head into another downward spiral. Apparently Eric Cantor is more worried about scoring points with the right wing base of his party than whether his constituents suffer if they do shut down the government because they refuse to negotiate with the Democrats. Here's more from the link on Goddard's post.
House Republicans plan symbolic bill to pressure Senate on shutdown:
As negotiations on funding the federal government continue in fits and starts ahead of an April 8 deadline, House Republican leaders on Wednesday announced that they plan to pressure the Senate by voting Friday on a measure that they have termed the “Government Shutdown Prevention Act.”
“What this bill says is it reiterates again the deadline, and that the Senate should act before the deadline, and that’s what the American people are expecting,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Wednesday morning at a news conference with other House Republican leaders. “The bill then says if the Senate does not act, then H.R. 1 [the House-passed bill that cuts $61 billion] will be the law of the land. In addition to that, it says that if all else fails, and the Senate brings about a shutdown, then members should not get their pay.”
Asked about Republicans’ “law of the land” claim, Jon Summers, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), noted that the measure would have to pass the Senate and be signed by the president in order to become law -- something that’s not likely to happen.
“Maybe while our office negotiates with Speaker [John] Boehner’s office, the rest of the people who aren’t in the room could focus on passing bills to create jobs and help struggling families, rather than focusing on a bill that, among other things, kills 700,000 jobs,” Summers said.
The House leaders’ gesture comes even as they are reaching out to moderate Democrats on financial issues, in part in an effort to avoid a shutdown. As the Washington Post’s Paul Kane reported Wednesday, the deal would involve more than $30 billion in cuts for the rest of this fiscal year, less than half the amount initially demanded by conservative freshmen Republicans, many elected with tea party support. Read on...
