Republicans in the House of Representatives blasted President Barack Obama Saturday for negotiating with Iran and Russia over Tehran's nuclear ambitions and Syria's chemical weapons stash but not with them over avoiding a potential federal government shutdown.
“The sad thing about it is our president is willing to negotiate with a country we call a terrorist country but is not will to negotiate (with Republicans),” Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said in a morning speech on the House floor. “Yes indeed, Mr. President, we have a failure of leadership and the buck stops with you.”
Foxx's sentiments were echoed by Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, and other Republican lawmakers who lined up for one-minute statements in which they denounced the Affordable Care Act, the Senate’s move that stripped a provision to defund Obamacare from a measure to keep the government funded through mid-December, and placed blame on a shutdown on the White House and congressional Democrats.
“Unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are trying to put the blame on us for saying that we’re here because we’re fighting what we see as a failed policy,” Foxx said. “We don’t want to shut down the federal government…but we want to have the policy right.”
Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., said “The solution cannot and should not be just bigger government, just a legacy piece of legislation.”
"We are not about shutting down this government, that’s the policy of our conference,” Tipton said. “But we also need to have a policy that’s making sure that government laws are not hurting the American people. The Affordable Care Act is hurting the American people.”
As House Republicans were bashing Obama, the president was out hitting golf balls at nearby Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
