September 17, 2009

Funny, I don't remember any Republicans saying this when they wanted to get Bush's judicial nominations through the Senate.

HANNITY: And that was Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus earlier today making a plea on behalf of his health care reform plan. Now we had hoped and, in fact, promised it would be a bill that would garner bipartisan support. Instead, Senator Baucus, he found himself standing all alone this afternoon.

There were no Democrats. There were no Republicans by his side. So, is his bill DOA, dead on arrival? We're joined now by former White House communications director Nicolle Wallace and Sandra Smith from the FOX Business Network.

You know, the interesting part of this is nobody came out with him. It's still going to be $800 billion. Still hasn't been scored. But you got Rockefeller saying no, Wyden saying no. That's on the Senate side. And then Olympia Snowe saying get rid of the government option.

You have Weiner in the House. Pelosi in the House and the CBC in the House saying no way without a government option. It's the Democrats' problem.

NICOLLE WALLACE, FORMER WH COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Yes. Look, I think what we'll never know is how this would have played out if this is where the Democrats started. You know the one thing I thought today was this would have been a great opening position if the Democrats had spent the last four months trying to rally support around this as their position to come to the table and invite Republicans to sit down with them.

This is the best we can do. We think this represents the desires of most -- many Americans.

HANNITY: Right.

WALLACE: What do you have? But, you know, instead, this is near the end of the process and he walked out alone.

SANDRA SMITH, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: And the whole point here is that the proposal -- we understand that this is a proposal. This is not the actual plan. It's a mark up. It can be changed. It will be changed. But the whole point, Sean, is that he was coming out with this in hopes of garnering Republican support. He steps out today. He is alone. No one is joining in with him.

HANNITY: Not one person.

SMITH: Not one person.

HANNITY: Well, Harry Reid, for the first time this week, said he will use the nuclear option. If he goes down that road, what will the reaction be not only from Republicans but from people in this country that are out there protesting at town halls, the march on Washington this week. What's the reaction?

WALLACE: I think the nuclear option is the only thing less appealing to the American people than the public option. I mean you saw the outcry. We all saw over the summer. This is not a Republican revolt. This is a revolt of the American people. And I think if he turns to that tactic, I think the Democrats will pay hefty price.

And of course she's wrong about support for the public option.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon