Hypocrisy on the Hill
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Leading Democrats change their government shutdown tune from 2013.
The Democratic Party appears willing to assign blame for this weekend’s looming government shutdown over failure to agree on the fate of Dreamers, but members might be called out for hypocrisy after fiery comments made about Republicans during 2013’s shutdown.
In 2013, Democrats called Republicans who refused to get on board with the Obama administration’s agenda “anarchists,” and “arsonists” with “a bomb strapped to their chest.”
“I call them ‘legislative arsonists’,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said at the time.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at the time that he has “never seen such an extreme group of people adopt such an insane policy.”
“Does Speaker (John) Boehner need to engage in something like the ancient practice of sacrifice, this time to the right-wing gods? Do we have to sacrifice the economy and help for millions of middle class people?” he said during a TV appearance.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., called Republicans “unhinged.”
“Would you, if you didn’t like the redesign of your kitchen, would you burn the whole house down or would you try to make modifications to the kitchen? These people have come unhinged,” the former Democratic National Committee said on CNN.
This week, however, the top Democrats were depicting themselves as bystanders in a tough situation. Schumer, the Senate minority leader, was among the first to fault Republicans for the deadlock.
After the 17-day-long government shutdown in 2013 was over, Obama advised Republicans to win the elections and argue for their positions rather than breaking the process of the how the government makes policy.
“You don’t like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But don’t break it. Don’t break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. That’s not being faithful to what this country’s about,” Obama said.
Fast forward to 2018, the Republican Party now controls all three branches of government – with a slim majority of 51-49 in the Senate, but a government shutdown remains a real possibility.
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