This is just a short post highlighting how some headlines seem to give Senate leader John Thune a lot more credit than he deserves and lets him skate on a possible outright lie.
ABC News goes with headline that Thune did make an offer, while the sub-headline indicates that Schumer says he didn’t make an offer, and in the meat of the story notes that Mike Johnson says he couldn’t guarantee that anyway:
Thune says he offered Democrats a vote on Obamacare subsidies to end government shutdown
Schumer said the GOP did not offer any proposal to vote to extend the subsidies.
"It's not possible for Leader Thune to guarantee to Chuck Schumer some outcome on that, because we haven't finished those deliberations. I mean, that's just as simple as it is,” (Speaker Mike) Johnson said Thursday morning.
ABC News
It’s important because far, far more people see the short headline than open the article to see the sub-headline or read the story, and thus makes the Democrats look like they passed over some sustantive offer…
When they did not get any substative offer at all.
More beneath the cut.
Politico credits Thune in the headline, too, while perhaps being a bit more honest in their sub-headline:
Thune dangles Obamacare vote after shutdown ends
The GOP leader is trying to sway Senate Democrats to reopen the government without making a guarantee whether key insurance subsidies will be extended.
Politico
While Politico is a touch more honest there, they still give Thune’s claim headline “authority.”
In Politico’s story they share that Schumer says Thune didn’t offer it, though:
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wouldn’t engage Thursday on the subject.
“We’re not negotiating in public,” he told reporters. “Plain and simple, Leader Thune has not come to me with any proposal at this point.”
(Politico link above)
So it’s possible Thune “said something about it” but didn’t present a proposal, kind of like the way Saturday Night Live’s “Land Shark” mumbled something at the door to get people to open it and then ate them once they opened the door.
In that event he’s still making undue claims and the headlines give him way too much credit, the type of thing that make people believe Republicans are being somewhat reasonable.
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Either way the Senate failed to keep the government open and now they’re adjourned until Monday, October 20.
Thune also threw in a vote to fund the Pentagon, but I think it was attached to the government reopening bill, without addressing healthcare concerns. So this is just Thune trying to make the Democrats look bad (which he said yesterday he was planning to do).
Games games games.
The Senate failed to advance a Republican bill to extend government funding and end the shutdown for a 10th time on Thursday, the 16th day of the impasse.
The vote was 51 to 45, falling short of the 60 votes needed to move forward. No new Democrats joined Republicans to vote to advance the legislation.
The Senate also voted on advancing a long-term appropriations bill to fund the Pentagon, a new wrinkle in the ongoing standoff. That effort likewise failed to reach 60 votes, stalling Senate Majority Leader John Thune's hopes of restarting some funding during the shutdown. Only three Democrats voted to move forward on the defense bill, prompting an angry response from Thune on the Senate floor.
Thune also said he has told Democrats he can guarantee a vote on a one-year extension of the health care tax credits that are at the center of their demands, but could not promise that it would pass. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said later that Thune had not presented a formal proposal and that Democrats are "not negotiating in public."
CBS News
Those headlines annoyed me as the articles themselves seemed to indicate that Thune is perhaps a liar, liar pants on fire, yet push the opposite narrative in the all important headlines.
It seemed that was Thune’s “harumph harumph, we’re the good guys” point and they’re carrying his water for him.
I am not amused.
