Posted on 09/23/2013 1:03:36 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
EASTON — After spending the weekend in St. Michaels, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., was in Easton on Sunday, Sept. 22, to talk politics and what's going on in Washington, D.C.
"What's going on in Washington today is outrageous," Cardin said. "We can't get the Republicans to sit down and take on the responsibilities to govern."
On Friday, the House passed a continuing resolution that would defund the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, but would fund the government through Dec. 15, 2013.
If the bill doesn't make it through the Senate by the end of September, it would force a government shutdown, which hasn't happened since the Clinton Administration.
"This is what 50 or 75 Republicans in the House required their body to send over to us. It's not a budget. It's not a serious effort," Cardin said. "The Republicans who orchestrated sending it over to us (Senate) did it because they want government to fail, not Obamacare to fail."
Cardin said the Senate has tried 10 to 15 times to get the House to conference on the budget, but Republicans won't sit around the table to negotiate and compromise.
But, Cardin acknowledged it's not all Republicans in the House who won't compromise or want government to shut down.
"The extreme right wing is controlling the agenda of the Republicans, particularly in the House, so we can't sit around the table and work things out," he said. "We will meet any day the Republicans want to meet to try to work out a fair agreement on the budget. We're there because that's our responsibility, but we're not going to give into their outrageous demands; it's not going to happen."
U.S. Rep Andy Harris, R-Md. 1st, voted for the continuing resolution that would defund Obamacare but keep the government funded through Dec. 15.
He called Obamacare a "disastrous law" that is "anything but affordable" and doesn't protect patients.
After Harris told the crowd at his bull roast on Saturday in Queenstown that "we have stopped the Obama agenda," he talked about a budget that spent less.
"This law is bad for middle class families who will see their premiums go up and young people who are starting out. Businesses are having to move full time workers to part time, lay people off, or put off hiring because the regulations are too expensive," Harris said. "It is now time for the U.S. Senate to listen to the American people and take action to defund this train wreck."
But Cardin said there is a lot of "misinformation out there" about Obamacare, with much of it coming from the mouths of the GOP leaders who sent through the continuing resolution.
"Look at the facts. Look at what happened before the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Every year, companies increased their cost of their employees and reduced their benefits. That was happened every single year. There were double-digit increases in healthcare reflected in coverage before the passage of the affordable care Act. You repeal it, you go back to those days," Cardin said.
Before Obamacare was passed, Cardin said he could reference "case after case" of people in Maryland who couldn't get reliable health coverage. Now, "every American can get access to quality insurance," Cardin said.
"We're the wealthiest nation in the world. Isn't it time that we really do provide universal care," he said.
The Senate is expected to hear the continuing resolution on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
Cardin said the Senate needs 60 votes for a working majority, "so that if the Republicans get denied on process, they can stop the Senate on acting, so it is possible that they could try to stop the Senate from acting at all."
There's talk that Senate Republicans might filibuster the resolution through September, which forces the government shutdown on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
"What they're doing is if they filibuster the continuing resolution ... is closing government and denying us to vote, which doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. It seems like it's counter productive," Cardin said. "So I think they're in a tough position if they try to filibuster, because then they are closing down government, and it's clearly the Republicans who are closing down government."
If the government shuts down, Cardin said all federal agencies will close except for those that have essential services.
"So you'd be able to get your Social Security check, but you won't be able to deal with any problems you have with your Social Security check," he said as an example.
But, Cardin said he was confident that the Senate will send back the resolution to the House without defunding Obamacare.
Though he said he wasn't sure what will happen once the resolution gets back to the House, "you could get over two-thirds of the vote over in the House of Representatives for what we'll send back."
"Almost every Democrat, and probably 40 percent of the Republicans and maybe more that would vote for it," Cardin said.
The commies are mad. Good.
Andy Harris is also a MD and the only Rep that Maryland has with any moral compass.
Whenever a Democrat uses the word “compromise” it really means “do it our way”. You cannot compromise or reason with them.
I smell fear coming from the rats.
Kind of hard to press that argument while having the video of Obama and company threatening no ‘negotiations’.
They’re just p’oed because Cruz has called their play out and now they know the jig is up vis-a-vis immigration and healthcare.
I don’t recall the Dims compromising with any Republican suggestions when they were “writing” Obummercare.. Why should they compromise with them now?
The obstinate President says, “We will not negotiate!” The equally obstinate Reid says, “Dead on arrival!”
The House listens to the people and funds the entire government without the totally unnecessary, unwanted, unconstitutional, economy-killing, jobs-killing pet project of the petulant president (which is a trainwreck and obviously not ready and never will be ready for prime time) and the president and the democrat senate threatens to shutdown the entire federal government laying off hundreds of thousands of loyal federal workers and creating much suffering among the people.
Ok, now who’s being the responsible adult here and who is the petulant, obstinate child? Who’s really not interested in responsible, constitutional governance?
This coming from the party of NO Budget for How Many Years?
Hey dude,
Will the Democrats compromise?
But strongarming, bribery and bills passed in the dead of night around Christmas is governing?? Please Senator! You weren’t a bit outraged then!
> “We’re the wealthiest nation in the world. Isn’t it time that we really do provide universal care,” he said.
Well Comrade Cardin, these United States need to come to the reality as seen by the rest of the world. They have been consuming most of the world’s resources and raping the wealth of emerging nations. This must stop!
/s
Comrade Cardin doesn’t understand that the USA is wealthy because of its heritage, because it embraced freedom and kept limited government. Universal Healthcare is the path to Socialism which is a colossal failure as evidenced by history.
If the bill doesn't make it through the Senate by the end of September, it would force a government shutdown, which hasn't happened since the Clinton Administration.
Works for me! Pull the plug on the arrogant sons of [fill in the blank]s!
“We’re the wealthiest nation in the world. Isn’t it time that we really do provide universal care,””
“Wealthiest nation”? That’s like saying that a guy with a 4 million dollar debt and no desire to cut up the credit cards can buy everyone on the block dinner forever.
I was quoting the moron democrat in the article.
“I was quoting the moron democrat in the article.”
Oh I knew that. :)
Eh, it’s Cardin, and I’m in a hurry, so I didn’t bother reading the article, but in case any of you are interested . . .
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
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