In the wake of the failure of the House GOP’s health care legislation on Friday, blame was being hurled all over Washington. And during Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC, the panel joined in and savagely began tearing into the different factions of the Republican Party on the Hill. “That loss isn’t on the President it isn't on Paul Ryan and it is on the Area 51 sub-caucus of the Freedom Caucus, which believes in legislative flying saucers,” spat Republican radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“Which believes in legislative flying saucers that ignore the Senate and Senate rules and the reconciliation rules and they own the loss. Nobody else,” he continued to rant.
Hewitt’s anger was released by moderator Chuck Todd who stated: “This is what The Washington Examiner headline is, ‘GOP cave on Obamacare repeal is the biggest broken promise in political history,’ and it was at the top of, I believe, Phil Klein's analysis. Is he right?” To which, Hewitt replied that “No, it’s overstated.”
Todd then called on former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, who mocked the House GOP with:
The fact of the matter is the entire Republican side of the House for seven years has been screaming about repealing Obamacare. So they come up with a plan that they do in the middle of the night and they shove it in front of the House and they say take it or leave it. The President buys into that. What they created really was a circular firing squad and the command was ready, fire, aim.
The baton was passed to Eliana Johnson, the national political reporter for Politico. She concluded that the GOP was not “mentally prepared” for the political effort required to pass such a major policy proposal, especially the kind that caused the Democrats to lose control of government.
From there, loony Joy Reid, from MSNBC slammed the GOP, asserting that they just wanting to take something really meaningful from Obama. “The zeal was really just taking this thing that Obama did away,” she claimed was something the public learned over the 17-day lifespan of the GOP bill, “Which and a lot of people on the Democratic side perceived repeal and replace is about taking away Obama’s signature achievement.”
She also appeared to insinuate that Republicans had an underlining aptitude for being inhumane to those who are less fortunate:
Republicans have spent the last 30, 40 years of trying to replace this image of callousness toward the poor, of callousness toward the elderly with this idea of compassionate conservatism. That was whisked away over this process. There was a cruelty to this bill that was really-- even apparent to conservative voters to Republican voters who were shocked at the cruelty.
The failure of the last GOP health care bill is not really that big a deal. Since Republicans control the presidency and both legislative chambers they can retry it at any time. That’s not to mention the media’s hypocritical anger over factions influencing politics. Where was this outrage when Obama originally sunk the Keystone XL pipeline on the whim of a radical liberal faction?
Transcript below:
NBC
Meet the Press
March 26, 2017
10:53:23 AM EasternCHUCK TODD: All right Hugh, I'm going to start with you because this is what The Washington Examiner headline is, “GOP cave on Obamacare repeal is the biggest broken promise in political history,” and it was at the top of, I believe, Phil Klein's analysis. Is he right?
HUGH HEWITT: No, it’s over stated. We had a great week with Neil Gorsuch. He’s going to change the balance of the Supreme Court for 30 years. And so, President Trump has as a huge win to put on the table this week. It was a big loss, but I agree with the autopsy that Director Mulvaney just put out there, that loss isn’t on the President it isn't on Paul Ryan and it is on the Area 51 sub-caucus of the Freedom Caucus, which believes in legislative flying saucers that ignore the Senate and Senate rules and the reconciliation rules and they own the loss. Nobody else.
TODD: Tom?
TOM BROKAW: The fact of the matter is the entire Republican side of the House for seven years has been screaming about repealing Obamacare. So they come up with a plan that they do in the middle of the night and they shove it in front of the House and they say take it or leave it. The President buys into that. What they created really was a circular firing squad and the command was ready, fire, aim. And we're all involved in politics, but out in America today people with serious or even moderate health problems are wondering, “Where do I go from here?” It’s so broken in Washington. It's not going to get anything done.
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10:55:47 AM Eastern
JOY REID: I think it was a revelatory process, and I thought the graphic you put up that showed the number legislative days devoted to all these previous attempts at legislation. You know, where your time is spent that's where your passion is. And I think the problem for Republicans is that this 17-day odyssey revealed three things at are not good for them. Number one, that the zeal was really just taking this thing that Obama did away. Which and a lot of people on the Democratic side perceived repeal and replace is about taking away Obama’s signature achievement. But affirmatively, what did they want to do?
Republicans have spent the last 30, 40 years of trying to replace this image of callousness toward the poor, of callousness toward the elderly with this idea of compassionate conservatism. That was whisked away over this process. There was a cruelty to this bill that was really-- even apparent to conservative voters to Republican voters who were shocked at the cruelty.
And the third thing and the President has hinted at this, too, this was a tax cut. This was an attempt to jam through a giant tax cut for the wealthy to set the stage for “tax reform,” which is another tax cut.
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