-By Warner Todd Huston
For months the Old Media, President Obama, and the Democrats have been jabbing the GOP for being the “party of no” and for not offering any healthcare ideas of its own. Byron York of the Washington Examiner, however, reveals the facts behind this epithet and finds the attack to be false. The truth is, the GOP has offered all sorts of ideas and bills, not that the Democrats have bothered to entertain any of them.
We learned earlier in the week that Obama hasn’t invited GOP leaders to the White House since April. And there’s been report after report that Democrats either don’t need or don’t want to bother with Republicans during this process. All this despite Obama’s happy-talk of how he wants bi-partisanship.
At one point during the president’s healthcare speech on Wednesday several GOP Representatives held up their bills in protest when the president made the arguably false claim that he would listen to opposing views, a claim he’s made without following through with the offer.
One of those bills, York reports, is H.R. 3400. York found some interesting facts about H.R. 3400.
A search of the LexisNexis database of newspapers, magazines, television programs and major blogs finds about 3,000 mentions of the major House Democratic bill, H.R. 3200, in the past six months. (Those are just the stories that refer to the bill by its House number; there have been thousands more stories referring generally to the Democratic legislation.) A similar search found 60 mentions of H.R. 3400, the Price bill.
York also lists the many other healthcare bills that the GOP has submitted to Congress.
Just for the record, in case you want to check them out, these are the bills proposed, so far, by Price and his allies in the House: H.R. 77; H.R. 109; H.R. 198; H.R. 270; H.R. 321; H.R. 464; H.R. 502; H.R. 544; H.R. 917; H.R. 1086; H.R. 1118; H.R. 1441; H.R. 1458; H.R. 1468; H.R. 1658; H.R. 1891; H.R. 2520; H.R. 2607; H.R. 2692; H.R. 2784; H.R. 2785; H.R. 2786; H.R. 2787; H.R. 3141; H.R. 3217; H.R. 3218; H.R. 3356; H.R. 3372; H.R. 3400; H.R. 3438; H.R. 3454; and H.R. 3478.
So, the claim that the GOP has offered nothing is obviously untrue. Additionally, the claim that Obama and the Democrats have listened to the GOPs proposals is also a lie.
Go on over to read York’s full report.
(Cross posted at HealthcareHorseRace.com.)
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as NewsBusters.org, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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