Yesterday, during a press conference, CNN's Dana Bash had a simple question for Harry Reid. Republicans in the House were promising to pass a CR funding the National Institutes of Health - thus allowing NIH research into childhood cancer to continue despite the shutdown - and Bash wanted to know if Reid and his cronies would allow it to pass the Senate.
After all, it would take a cruel, hubristic, thug to deny funding that could potentially save the life of an 8-year-old with leukemia, right?
“You all talked about children with cancer unable to go to clinical trials,” Bash pointed out. “The House is presumably going to pass a bill funds at least the NIH. Given what you’ve said, will you at least pass that? And if not, aren’t you playing the same political games that Republicans are?
Reid was indignant.
“Listen," he barked. "Sen. Durbin explained that very well. And he did it here. He did it on the floor earlier - as did Sen. Schumer. What right did they have to pick and choose what part of government is going to be funded? It’s obvious what’s going on here. You talk about reckless and irresponsible. Wow! What this is all about is Obamacare. They are obsessed. I don’t know what other word I can use. I don’t know what other word I can use. They are obsessed with this Obamacare. It’s working. It’s working now and it will continue to work and people will love it more than they do now by far. "
"But," Bash countered "If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?"
At this point, Reid still had a chance. There was still the possibility that he could turn it around, and not make himself look like the unfeeling big-government vermin we all know him to be. Reid failed to save his bacon.
"Why would we want to do that?" Reid said angrily. "I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own. To have someone of your intelligence suggest such a thing maybe means you’re irresponsible and reckless."
Here, we finally have some truth from the left. To a man like Harry Reid, who sees the world only in terms of political gamesmanship, kids are either pawns or burdens. Why would he want to save one child? Children can't vote, they don't donate to campaigns, and they have no power in the national news media.
Remember earlier this year when an 11-year-old Pennsylvania girl needed a lung transplant? Dems like HHS director Kathleen Sebilius said, hey "Some people live. Some people die." In her mind, rules and politics trumped children. That's what Sebilius believed then, and it's what Harry Reid thinks today.
The fact that Reid is advancing an equivocation between children fighting cancer and non-essential civilian Air Force personnel being forced to take a few days off is stunning in its inhumanity.
So, to answer Harry's point: YES. Conservatives are furious about Obamacare. Why would anyone want a gang of heartless bureaucrats involved with their health care, when they have such a monstrous track record?
