Yesterday was the new GOP House of Representatives big day. It was the first session of Congress and they were going to put their stamp on the 112th Congress. They started by reading a redacted version of the Constitution (the King George version had too many icky parts). Apparently this was so boring few even bothered to stay and listen to the whole thing. The only bit of excitement came when a birther interrupted the reading of Article II, Section I (the natural born citizen part). This charming birther shouted:
Except Obama! Except Obama! Help us Jesus!
Of course this birther keeps an interesting website.
Since we had an outbreak of birtherism, Weeper of the House John Boehner was asked about the subject in his first press conference. He said that he thinks that Obama was born in Hawai’i but can’t tell others what to think. Yes, facts are something to be believed or not depending on whether they’re convenient or not.
It only took a couple of hours before the GOP violated the Constitution. Two Congressman missed the swearing in, but voted anyway. This puts the GOP’s top priority “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” in jeopardy, since one of them voted illegally in the Rules Committee. Speaking of inconvenient facts, the CBO scored H.R. 2 “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” as costing $230 Billion over 10 years. Since this was an inconvenient fact, John Boehner said “the CBO is entitled to their opinion” and vowed to increase the deficit and kick sick kids off insurance anyway. Priorities, people.
Very special Congressman Louie Gohmert Steve King (corrected) participated in the Rules Committee debate about HCR repeal. He explained how the Commerce Clause doesn’t apply the Health Care Reform:
After Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) said that health insurance counts as interstate commerce and therefore falls under the Congress’s constitutional powers, King argued that there are people who never even use health care — and therefore a law requiring them to buy insurance is unconstitutional.
“There have always been and likely will always be, babies that were born, lived and died within the jurisdictions of the individual states,” he said, “who never cross a state line, access no health care and therefore do not impact interstate commerce. Therefore, to compel someone who fits that category to buy an insurance policy” does not fit under the interstate commerce clause.
“You find the baby that was not born in a hospital or with a midwife, who did not receive inoculations,” Polis said. “You find that baby and identify them and I’ll be happy to have that discussion.” “I hate to tell you but they show up in garbage cans around this country, sir,” he said.
That makes perfect sense.
So, as you can see the Republicans really got off on the right foot today and have set the tone for the battles to come.