Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) called it “stunning” that so many of House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) caucus broke with Republican leadership to vote against raising the debt ceiling.
The final vote on the “clean” debt ceiling measure – containing no amendments or attachments – was 221-215, with 28 Republicans joining all but two Democrats.
“What continues to astonish me is that you’ve got John Boehner, who is skipping along and humming a nice little tune while 199 of his caucus members voted to default,” Wasserman Schultz said this morning on MSNBC.
“You know, Democrats have been steadfast with President Obama that we need to pay the nation’s bills, that we cannot bring our economy to the brink of default and economic disaster, and we needed to pass a clean debt ceiling. Thankfully, Speaker Boehner at least realized this was not something that he should allow to continue to twist in the wind out there, but, you know, he is really, essentially, dealing with a caucus of individuals who think that it’s OK to just blow off paying the nation’s bills and jeopardize our economy, potentially throwing us back into another significant recession,” she continued.
“I think that at least one person, John Boehner, seems to recognize that at the end of the day, he has a very hard core group of Tea Party extremists, who are most of the time running the show there, but even John Boehner, I think, realized that it was essential for us to put a bill on the floor that allowed us to pay the bills when there was nothing that would please any of these extremists, but who most of the time he allows to run the show.”
Wasserman Schultz said the Democrats are willing to work with the GOP on upcoming bills, except when, as the election approaches, they’re “in a situation where we have to present the contrast between Democrats and Republicans on those issues, where Republicans have actually introduced no legislation that actually would focus on job creation.”
“It’s stunning that the Republican leadership is so obsessed with Hillary Clinton and anyone’s personal, private family business that they would drudge up 20-year-old issues like that, is not only not fair game, it’s offensive. And I think it’s another example of their ability to alienate women across this country,” she said.
“And in the war on women, it’s just another opportunity for us to show that Republicans just don’t get it and why Republican women in a recent poll said that the Democratic party understands the issues important to women and place them in a higher priority. And that’s why we’re going to continue to win women and it will matter in 2014 and in 2016.”
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