This is like candy.
Democrats Find Unity Against a Common FoeBy John Stanton
The splintered House Democratic Caucus that limped through the final days of the last Congress emerged to begin the new one fiercely unified, at least to start, accusing Republicans of hypocritical theater for pushing a health care repeal bill with no amendments and limited debate.
The near-unanimous denunciations of the GOP’s handling of the health care repeal bill, and the Republicans’ package of proposed rules giving them significant budgetary leeway, were a marked difference from the 111th Congress, when moderates and liberals rarely got on the same page.
Noting that the Senate has already made it clear that it will not take up the repeal bill, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said: “This repeal of health care by the Republicans is political theater. It is a Kabuki dance. ... The fact of the matter is, we’re not going to repeal health care. It is not going to happen.”
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Even Senate Democrats were getting into the act, with Jon Summers, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), charging that the GOP is “laying the groundwork for Republicans’ extremist agenda of shutting down the government, raising taxes on small businesses and telling seniors they’re on their own by reopening the Medicare doughnut hole.”
At this point, Democrats appear to be sticking together, and although a handful will reportedly vote with the GOP on repeal, a mass exodus is unlikely.
“I’m not concerned about that,” Hoyer said Tuesday when asked about the possibility of defections.
Hoyer and other Democrats also warned that they will in many ways emulate the GOP during the last session and try to exploit instances where Republicans are unable to live up to their campaign pledges.
“We also intend to hold Republicans accountable for the representations they made to the American people. As they did us,” Hoyer warned.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/-202064-1.html