Last week, Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner slammed House Republicans for killing legislation that would have provided health benefits to 9/11 heroes, singling out GOP Rep. Pete King for blocking the legislation. The legislation, which Democrats hoped to pass through a fast-track process, would required a two-thirds vote to pass; it failed despite receiving nearly unanimous support from Democrats because virtually every Republican voted against it.
Seems pretty clear that Republicans killed the legislation, right? Apparently not, at least if you are GOP Rep. Pete King.
King sees it a bit differently. He pointed his finger at Democrats for requiring a 2/3 majority to pass the bill – King said it should've been passed with the standard 218.
"I’m saying to Anthony Weiner and the Democrats, unless you want to have cops and firefighters die, bring this back up in September and require a simple majority, the way they’ve done for every other important vote," King said on "Morning Joe."
Watch:
The bottom-line is this: all but four Democrats supported the legislation and all but 12 Republicans opposed it. It will probably eventually get passed because Democrats hold the majority, but despite the urgent need to enact the legislation, Republicans took advantage of House rules to block the bill. And now they are claiming it's all the Democratic Party's fault. Oh, how strange it must be to live in their bizarre little world.