January 28, 2010

James Clyburn responds to Mike Pence's assertion that the Democrats shut the Republicans out of the health care debate. That's all you hear out of these people is start over. After a year of having them participate and getting absolutely no votes as Rep. Clyburn just pointed out, do they honestly think anyone believes they'd behave any better the next time around?

I've got to give it to them though. They've got their lies and they're sticking to them, reality be damned. And most of the media is happy to go along for the ride without bothering to call them out for it, Ed Schultz being one of the exceptions. We're sure as hell never going to get that kind of messaging discipline out of the Democratic caucus with the Blue Dogs, ConservaDems and old Joementum Lie-berlips in there mucking up the works.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, I think the president needs to really talk to the base tonight, solidify the base, because there`s a lot of folks out there in the middle class that have seen a lot of things go to Wall Street. Now, with that in mind, to present to the American people that the Republicans have been obstructionists, they`re getting their backup when they hear that.

Earlier today, on Dylan Ratigan`s show, I made a comment about just that, and it drew this response from Congressman Pence...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PENCE: I`ve got to tell you, that was the one thing -- and THE ED SHOW is popular. It`s not my cup of TV, but he`s good radio and good TV. But look, Ed just said the president ought to consider shutting Republicans out.

Ed, news flash. House Democrats in this administration have shut Republicans out of the entire process in the House and in the Senate for the last year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: I tell you, those Republicans are amazing. I didn`t say they should shut out the Republicans. I just said that you should move on without them. If they want to get in the process, that`s fine.

But Congressman Clyburn, he said that, "House Democrats in this administration have shut Republicans out of the entire process in the House."

Is that true?

CLYBURN: That is absolutely not true. We had these bills on the House side go through three committees, and Republicans are on all of those committees. They participated. They put up amendments.

Many of those amendments were adopted. And we came out with a bill that had a lot of their amendments in it.

Then we put it out on the Internet for 72 hours before we ever started voting on it. How many hours did we debate it in these committees?

It is amazing how these people can go to the floor, after going through all of that, and because they decide not to vote for it, then they say they were not consulted. They did not have an opportunity to participate. It is the most ridiculous thing that you could possibly say.

Now, that`s just the House side. The Senate did two committees. And you know how long they were working there.

If you look at a big part of this bill, this high-risk pool that the Senate came forward with, go back and look at John McCain`s campaign ad. He campaigned on creating the high-risk pool. That was his philosophy that we brought into this bill, and they still would not vote for it.

But we ought not be surprised. You just saw Republicans, seven of whom co-sponsored legislation to do something about the deficit commission (ph) on yesterday. Then when it came time to vote, seven of the people who co-sponsored voted against the bill. I guess they are not consulted.

SCHULTZ: Yes. That`s just how the Republicans play the game.

Congressman Clyburn, good to have you with us tonight. Thank you so much.

CLYBURN: Well, thank you so much for having me.

SCHULTZ: You bet.

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