It took long enough! The mayor of Washington is finally making it clear to the American people that it is Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats who are responsible for shutting down the DC government and leaving all sorts of folks in the nation's capital without needed services. Over a week ago, on the second day of the partial government shutdown, the House passed a measure to fund spending by the DC government in the full amount that the Democrats want. Reid in the Senate as well as president Obama rejected this funding measure as a stunt and refused to allow a vote on it. As a result, government services in DC are curtailed in dramatic fashion.
Today on Capitol Hill, Washington mayor Vincent Gray crashed a press conference being held by senator Reid and other Democrats and complained that the senate Democrats were causing all sorts of grief for residents of the city. Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, the DC delegate to Congress, echoed what mayor Gray had to say. For the first time in a long time we had the spectacle of two prominent Democrats calling out Reid and his fellow senate Democrats for using the DC residents as pawns in the ongoing battle with the Republicans. Gray and Norton made clear that the Democrats did not care one bit about the DC residents. After all, the money which the mayor wants to spend is the proceeds of taxes paid by DC residents, not other federal money. There is no reason why the city of Washington has to be held hostage by the Democrats. (I do no use the "hostage" terminology lightly. That is exactly the word used by Norton in describing what the senate Democrats are doing.)
The truth is that there is no way that the Democrats can justify keeping the DC government closed, the NIH from helping cancer patients, the Center for Disease Control from fighting epidemics, or the Veterans' Affairs Department from helping those who gave so much for the country. The refusal of the Democrats to fund those activities is unforgiveable. There is not even a dispute about the amount to be spent. The Democrats just refuse to accept yes for an answer.
Today on Capitol Hill, Washington mayor Vincent Gray crashed a press conference being held by senator Reid and other Democrats and complained that the senate Democrats were causing all sorts of grief for residents of the city. Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, the DC delegate to Congress, echoed what mayor Gray had to say. For the first time in a long time we had the spectacle of two prominent Democrats calling out Reid and his fellow senate Democrats for using the DC residents as pawns in the ongoing battle with the Republicans. Gray and Norton made clear that the Democrats did not care one bit about the DC residents. After all, the money which the mayor wants to spend is the proceeds of taxes paid by DC residents, not other federal money. There is no reason why the city of Washington has to be held hostage by the Democrats. (I do no use the "hostage" terminology lightly. That is exactly the word used by Norton in describing what the senate Democrats are doing.)
The truth is that there is no way that the Democrats can justify keeping the DC government closed, the NIH from helping cancer patients, the Center for Disease Control from fighting epidemics, or the Veterans' Affairs Department from helping those who gave so much for the country. The refusal of the Democrats to fund those activities is unforgiveable. There is not even a dispute about the amount to be spent. The Democrats just refuse to accept yes for an answer.
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