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With a shutdown of the federal government looming larger with each passing hour, the Republicans are scrambling to pitch the blame to the Democrats, despite the fact that the GOP controls the House, Senate, and Executive Branch. If there is a shutdown, it’s fully the Republicans’ fault, but they don’t want the American people to know that.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) sent out a deeply disingenuous tweet today with sinister undertones. He claimed that Democrats must choose between funding CHIP for 8,900,000 children or protecting 690,000 DACA recipients.
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In reality, the only reason that we can’t do both is because Republicans are blocking the bipartisan bill. They want to hold children’s health insurance hostage as a means of avoiding helping DACA recipients.
What’s worst, Republicans are responsible for the fact that funding for CHIP even lapsed in the first place. They could have passed full funding for the critical program at any point over the course of the past year, but chose not to. Now it appears that the reason they held out so long was so that they could use the lives of children as bargaining chips during budget negotiations.
The DACA problems also belong at the feet of the GOP, since Trump was the one that unceremoniously chose to announce an end to DACA in 2017 as a way of pandering to his xenophobic and racist supporters.
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Given these facts, Mitch McConnell’s tweet comes across as incredibly cowardly and cruel:
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#Senate Democrats have a choice to make. This should be a no-brainer… pic.twitter.com/zdUFXxclZ9
— Leader McConnell (@SenateMajLdr) January 19, 2018
Tom Perez, the Chairman for the Democratic National Committee saw McConnell’s message and immediately hit back by calling it out for exactly what it is: a ransom note.
He also pointed out the false dichotomy propagated by the Senate Majority Leader: Congress can fund CHIP and help DREAMers.
Thanks for the ransom note, Mitch — but we can do both. https://t.co/OXPRWTq646
— Tom Perez (@TomPerez) January 19, 2018
The Republicans own this shutdown. Democrats shouldn’t back down from what’s right, and must remain strong in their messaging so that the American people see who is really at fault here. The GOP survives by constantly lying, but they won’t be able to wriggle out of this one.
