Speaker of the House John Boehner put on his most serious face today while delivering a speech in support of the House bill to repeal a section of Obamacare to pay for an extension of current interest rates on Stafford loans.
During this gratuitous display of "woe-is-me" he blamed the Democrats, and more specifically the president, for forcing them to vote to repeal part of Obamacare. Because won't someone think of the children?
“How in the world did we ever get here?” Boehner asked lawmakers. “Think about this: a fight being picked over an issue that everyone knew was going to be resolved; a fight being picked over an issue that there is no fight over. Democrats five years ago put this cliff in the law that would require student loan interest rates to more than double on July the 1st.
“I don’t know why they did it, but they did it,” he added. “Nobody wants to see student interest rates go up, especially when you got recent college graduates – 50 percent are either unemployed or underemployed as a result of the president’s economic policies.” [...]
“There is absolutely no fight,” he said. “People want to politicize this because it’s an election year, but my God do we have to fight about everything? And now we’re going to have a fight over women’s health. Give me a break.”
As we pointed out yesterday, Republicans are voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s Prevention & Public Health Fund in exchange for extending current interest rates.
The prevention and public health fund is aimed at taking an active role in preventing chronic disease, and this includes immunizations, vaccinations, and screening for breast cancer.
That's what the "fight" is about, and it was Boehner's decision to pick that fight. Or is he not the Speaker?
My contempt for John Boehner is palpable.