Providing a bit more proof that they are not quite the last line of defense that they perceive themselves to be, the House Republican leadership, on Thursday, again violated the pledge that they made to the nation back in 2010. You know, the one that said if they regained control of the House of Representatives they would put "all pieces of legislation" online for at least 72 hours before bringing them up for a vote. This time around, it was on Wednesday at 4:29 p.m that the Senate passed a 574-page continuing resolution that will fund the federal government for the rest of fiscal year 2013. This 574-page continuing resolution differed substantially from the 269-page version of the same continuing resolution that the House had passed back on March 6. Nonetheless, our less than stellar House Republican leadership brought the Senate language up for a vote in the House at 10:54 a.m. on Thursday, or only 18 hours and 15 minutes after it passed the Senate.
The Hill published a piece at 10:01 p.m. on Wednesday reporting that the House Rules Committee had released the text of the Senate-version of the CR that the Senate had approved five and a half hours earlier. "The House Rules Committee late Wednesday released the text of the Senate-passed bill that keeps the government funded for the rest of fiscal year 2013," said The Hill. "The bill is the Senate-amended H.R. 933." Remember now, this was back on Sept. 23, 2010, when House Republican leaders were busy reaching out to Tea Party folks in hopes of winning back control of Congress in that year’s midterm elections, even releasing a document they called "A Pledge to America." In it they said, "We will govern differently than past Congresses of both parties." They also promised, "We will require that every bill contain a citation of Constitutional authority. We will give all Representatives and citizens at least three days to read the bill before a vote."
At the event the Republican leaders staged for release of "A Pledge to America," Rep. Jason Chaffetz stood with then-House Minority Leader John Boehner, then-Minority Whip Eric Cantor and then-Deputy Minority Whip Kevin McCarthy and explained that this language meant the Republicans were promising to the nation that they would post all pieces of legislation online for "at least 72 hours." Chaffetz announced, "We are taking a pledge today to do a number of things." He went on to say, "It starts with all pieces of legislation be available online for 72 hours--at least 72 hours--so that the public has a chance to review the legislation and so that members of Congress can actually read the bill." McCarthy, who is now the House Republican Whip, went on national television twice and reiterated, rather strenuously, that the Republicans were pledging to America to post legislation online for 72 hours before voting on it.
And it was on Sept. 23, 2010 that McCarthy told Fox News he would love to debate Democrats about the provisions in the pledge the Republicans had released that very day. "Do they disagree that a bill should be put online for 72 hours and actually read before it’s voted on?" McCarthy asked. And it was again, on Oct. 10, 2010, that McCarthy told CNN, "When you look at the Pledge to America that the Republicans have laid out, there is a cultural change in there." He went on to say, "There is something that opens up the floor that hasn't been done for quite some time, where bills won't be written in the back of the room, where the bills have to be laid out for 72 hours, where bills actually have an open rule, where people can bring amendments up on the floor, which any freshman congressman that's sitting there today has never even seen that happen under the rule of Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats."
After the Republicans did win back control of the House in the 2010 election, Speaker-to-be John Boehner even went so far as to release an op-ed on Nov. 12, 2010, in it he highlighted his and his party’s pledge to post bills online for 72 hours before voting on them. "We will make it easier to cut spending, require bills to be published publicly for 72 hours before Congress votes, and end the practice of using 'comprehensive' bills to lump together issues that have nothing to do with each other," wrote Boehner. Back on March 6, when the House Republican leaders called a vote on their version of the CR, they also broke their "Pledge to America" to post bills online for at least 72 hours. It was reported at the time that the text of that 269-page version of the bill was posted at 2:21 p.m. on Monday, March 4 and voted on at 2:03 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6. Only 27 House Republicans voted against it the Senate version of the CR.
Ok, so back to Boehner's silly claim that we are now supposed to somehow consider Republicans in the House as being our last line of defense. Sorry, but I'm just not seeing it. And frankly, I'm not seeing all that much difference between him and Pelosi. And I'll tell ya, if people don’t see all that much of a difference between the parties where's the incentive for them to vote Republican? It would be nice if we could take Boehner and our leadership team at their word, but sadly, such was not the case. Then as now they do nothing more than to tell us what they think we wanted to hear, and there's no intention of ever following through. So why should we view them as being anymore trustworthy than Barry "Almighty?" At this point in the game our leadership team in the House has a bit of a credibility problem. And sadly I see very little evidence that they are least bit concerned about it, since they seem to be taking no action, whatsoever, in an attempt to alter that perception.
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