Anarchy, arson and terrorism! To hear Congressional Democrats talk about the GOP government shutdown last summer, one might think that the city was in imminent danger of collapse. But now that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is calling the shots, Democrats seem to be changing their tune.
Some, mostly led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, are threatening to oppose the recent omnibus spending bill, a move that could force a government shutdown.
Let’s take a flashback look at Democrats who were against government shutdowns before they were for them.
On Thursday, Pelosi announced her opposition to the 2015 omnibus spending bill, essentially throwing down the shutdown gauntlet.
“What was added to this bill was not the right thing, and that is why, it has bipartisanship, it has good things in it, but it will not have my support,” she said.
But in September of 2013, Pelosi had a very different opinion of the legislative tactic. When House Republicans threatened a shutdown if the Senate and White House were not willing to compromise on provisions to defund Obamacare, Pelosi, in an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley, accused them of being political “arsonists,” only focused on tearing down rather than building up.
“But for many of them, I call them legislative arsonists,” she said. “They’re there to burn down what we should be building up in terms of investments and education and scientific research and all that it is that make our country great and competitive. I don’t paint them all with the same brush. And I certainly don’t paint the speaker with that brush. But enough of them in their caucus to shut down government. That would be a victory for them.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) joined in Pelosi’s condemnation of the Republican shutdown. Railing against Republicans last year, she called them “the anarchy gang,” who were willing to sacrifice food inspections, the FDA and safe children’s toys for their budgetary machinations.
“The anarchy gang is quick to malign government, but when was the last time anyone called for regulators to go easier on companies that put lead in children’s toys?” Warren said in a speech on the Senate floor. “Or for food inspectors to stop checking whether the meat in our grocery stores is crawling with deadly bacteria? Or for the FDA to ignore whether morning sickness drugs will cause horrible deformities in little babies? We never hear that, not from political leaders in Washington and not from the American people.”
Legislators aren’t the only one playing the shutdown blame game. MSNBC host Chris Matthews called Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) a “terrorist” when Cruz supported the GOP shutdown efforts during the summer of 2013.
“I believe it’s terrorism,” Matthews said of the shutdown, which he pinned on Cruz. “This is the first time I’ve seen a political party or even a fraction of it saying that their number one goal is A — to shut down the American government, it is the American government. Kill a bill that has already passed by Congress and refuse to pay bills already run up by the Congress in an attempt to basically risk default. This is an attempt to destroy all we know of as the republican form of government in this country with the purpose — I don’t know the purpose.”
Replace Cruz’s name with Warren’s and his tune changes.
“I think it’s good for the country, I think this fight tonight,” Matthews said about Warren’s proposal on Thursday night. “We could stand a few more days fighting about the big budget bill, as long as we have someone looking out for the people.”
It seems that the quickest way to turn McCarthyism into a defense of liberty is to switch the letter after the lawmaker’s name.
