Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
McCain Emerges As Front Man In GOP Efforts To Claim Reform Mantle (The Huffington Post)
The way Democrats secured the 60 votes needed to break a Republican filibuster of health care legislation has exposed them to accusations that they have abandoned the “reformist” platform that swept them into office.
No cameras were allowed in the room where the final bill was written. And legislative sweeteners were added to the product to win the support of wavering members.
Senate Republicans, hell-bent on extracting every piece of political flesh they can in the current debate, quickly seized the initiative. And when they did, they turned to a familiar, self-proclaimed reformer to wield their message.
In a withering address on the Senate floor on Sunday, Sen. John McCain accused the president and Democratic leadership in the Senate of abandoning pledges of accountability and transparency during the reform process.
Pointing to the deals cut with the pharmaceutical industry, the American Medical Association and others, the Arizona Republican insisted that Democrats had “set up a tent out front and put Persian rugs out in front of it” – greeting special interests with specific gifts.
Recalling President Obama’s campaign pledge to televise negotiations, McCain noted that “there has never been a C-SPAN camera” in the rooms where Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) crafted the final version of legislation. Drawing attention to some of the sweeteners that were put in the bill to win the support of conservative Democrats, McCain scoffed that there were now “new words in our lexicon,” including the “Cornhusker Kickback”, in reference to Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and the newly recoined term “The Louisiana Purchase” in reference to concessions to that state’s Sen. Mary Landrieu.
FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE HUFFINGTON POST: McCain Emerges As Front Man In GOP Efforts To Claim Reform Mantle.
