From the Washington Times:
[House Minority Whip Eric] Cantor said Mr. Obama initially asked for Republican help on health care, but Republicans have heard nothing since they offered their ideas.
“No matter what the cry is from the White House, no matter what the president claims, they have not engaged with us,” he said.
“The White House at this point has shut down, as far as any kind of engagement. I think that the last time that we as a Republican leadership were at the White House was in May, and that’s when they called us in at the beginning of the health care discussion so that they could get our ideas,” Mr. Cantor said. “The president enlisted us and said we want your ideas. [Minority Leader John A.] Boehner and I sent a letter to the White House in response to that request. Nothing.”
Also, from the Des Moines Register:
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin said today Republicans will not be at the table when the Senate merges the health-care bills from two committees before sending one to the floor.
Harkin, a Democrat and chairman of one of the committees, also said any bill that passes Congress will include a government-run insurance option for Americans to buy.
“We will have a bill on the president’s desk before Christmas, a health-reform bill. It will have a lot of good stuff in it. It will have a lot of prevention and wellness programs in there that I’ve been fighting for,” Harkin told reporters in a morning conference call. “And it will have a public option.”
“The question of if it doesn’t isn’t even an option,” he added.
Asked whether Republicans would be at the table when Harkin’s committee’s bill is merged with legislation pending in the Senate Finance Committee, Harkin said no.
“No, this will be a proposal by the Democrats to bring a bill on the floor. And that’s what I have said before, that the people of this country — I keep saying — the people of this country pretty overwhelmingly elected Barack Obama last fall and to make changes,” he said. “The people of this country overwhelmingly elected Democrats to the House and Senate.”
“We should be proposing the changes to be made,” he added.
Awwww. The Party of No, the GNO!P, the weasels that got over 160 concessions in the House legislation to reform health care insurance and then voted against it (every fucking one of them) isn’t getting a seat at the table? Really? I feel SOOOOOO sorry for them. It must really suck to be irrelevant in Washington, D.C.
Douchebags.
I’m just sayin’…
