Reid: ‘Republicans Have Truly Lost Their Minds’ On Health Care

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Wednesday excoriated House Republicans for a scheduled vote Thursday to repeal Obamacare — their 37th vote to wipe out or dismantle the health care law.

“Albert Einstein defined insanity as, ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ If that’s true, the House Republicans have truly lost their minds,” Reid said.

He continued:

After last year’s election, Speaker Boehner conceded that Obamacare is here to stay. This is what he said: “It’s pretty clear that the President was reelected, [and] Obamacare is the law of the land.” But just in case, the House will waste this week on yet another dead-end repeal vote. Perhaps Republicans think the 37th time is the charm.

Tea Party extremists bullied the Speaker into holding yet another vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and roll back benefits for tens of millions of Americans. This is what the Speaker said last week: “We’ve got 70 new members who have not had an opportunity to vote on the president’s health care law… Frankly, they’ve been asking for an opportunity to vote on it.”

This political kabuki has tied up the floor of the House of Representatives for weeks, and cost the American taxpayers $52.4 million and counting, according to figures compiled by CBS News. That $52.4 million is enough to restore funding for 19 million meals for homebound seniors or 6,900 children dropped from the Head Start program.

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: