CNN's Brooke Baldwin had some stunningly ignorant analysis on Thursday about the opposition to Obamacare in Congress.
"Congress passes a law, in this case Obamacare, and then some of its members turn around and essentially try to sabotage it. Again, I repeat, it's a law. Certainly not the way the Founding Fathers maybe drew this thing up," she argued. [Video below the break. Audio here.]
First of all, not a single Republican voted for Obamacare in 2010, and many current Republicans opposing the law's funding were elected several months after Obamacare passed, so no Republican voted for Obamacare and now is trying to "sabotage" it.
Secondly, the opponents of Obamacare are using their constitutional power to vote against funding of the law that is opposed by a majority of Americans, quite within the boundaries of how the Founding Fathers "drew this thing up."
Regardless, Baldwin targeted Republicans in Congress who "seem ready and willing to shut down Obamacare, and if not, shut down the federal government." She seemed unaware of Democrats like Harry Reid who risk a shutdown by refusing to even negotiate over a bill that defunds the law.
This isn't the first time Baldwin's been obnoxious to opponents of the law. Hours after the Supreme Court voted to uphold most of Obamacare as constitutional, Baldwin asked Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) if he was a "sore loser" for continuing to oppose the law.
Back in 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama voted against a bill funding soldiers in Iraq after he had said he wasn't "interested in playing chicken with the troops." He explained that he opposed the funding because no timetable was set for an end to the war.
A 2008 CNN fact-check ruled that claims he "opposed funding our troops" were "Misleading," because he opposed the specific bill that had no timetable. Yet CNN is smacking Republicans opposing the spending bill because of no attachment to defund Obamacare.
Below is a transcript of the segment, which aired on CNN Newsroom on September 19 at 2:02 p.m. EDT:
BROOKE BALDWIN: Bottom line here, government shutdown looming and you will eventually need some Republicans working with some Democrats. And right now the Republicans are not working among themselves. Boy, oh boy. First of all you have Congress, right? We covered this some time ago. Congress passes a law, in this case Obamacare, and then some of its members turn around and essentially try to sabotage it. Again, I repeat, it's a law. Certainly not the way the Founding Fathers maybe drew this thing up.
(...)
BALDWIN: Isn't it true that quite a few Republicans seem ready and willing to shut down Obamacare, and if not, shut down the federal government?
GLORIA BORGER: Well, even Karl Rove in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today said look, Republicans are essentially on a fool's errand here. They're trying to make a political point, which is they want to kill Obamacare. Fine, we've heard this for years now, Brooke. And House Republicans finally drag their Speaker into this, kicking and screaming. He laid down the gauntlet, said, okay, we're going to vote to defund Obamacare, we're going to send it to the Senate, and then they feel like they have been deserted in the Senate by Senate Republicans and now they're hanging out there.
So what are they saying? We're not the ones who want to shut down the government. It's those people, those Democrats who are going to vote against us. They're the ones who want to shut down the government. It reminds me of my kids when they were younger and they would have a fight, and you would say, whose fault is it, who started it? And they point to other one. Exactly.
BALDWIN: What about Democrats, though? What do they have to say here? Usually, one party kind of enjoys when the kids are pointing at one another. The other kids are sitting back and saying ha ha ha, that's so fun to watch.
BORGER: Look at them, they're in trouble. Right?
BALDWIN: Are they worried at all about Obamacare?
BORGER: The Democrats understand that Obamacare is not going to get repealed. What they're doing is they're standing back now and they're pointing neon arrows, neon fingers at the Republicans and saying look at these guys. They don't know what they're doing. They can't agree on what they want to do. And by the way, all of you independent voters out there who don't want to shut down the government, take a look at this.
Because they understand that the American public doesn't want to shut down the government. They understand the repercussions of shutting down the government, particularly politically for the Republicans. So they're sitting back right now and saying, okay, watch them make a mess of it. And at a certain point, we're all going to have to rescue ourselves from this chaos that's been created.
BALDWIN: Okay. Hope you're not pulling too much of your hair out because this is now just beginning here.
