If you didn't see it on C-Span it didn't happen
I know I was not alone among the regulars at DU in having the TV tuned to C-Span all day yesterday and in fact well into early this morning. Many of us watched the ping-pong game between the House and the Senate, heard the speeches, and stood spellbound as the votes were counted. We know what happened, who made it happen, and how it happened.
If you are getting your information about the events in the Capital yesterday from any source other than C-Span you can expect it to be unreliable. Such is the state of news delivery in this country. The story told on FOX isn't even similar to the one on MSNBC - CNN is on a planet of its own in this and most other matters.
Here is what happened. A bill to fund the Government for a short period is what is at stake. This points out the first distortion you will see in news delivery, they all act as if it was the ACA that is being negotiated here. If you didn't know any better you'd think that the ACA was not law and had not been law for the last three years. The impression is that this new "Obamacare" is being finalized and that is what this is all about. But, once again, it is not. Republicans are trying to force changes to an existing law by holding a funding bill hostage here. That is what is actually going on.
Republicans in the House kept adding poison pills to the funding bill and sending it over to the Senate. In the Senate the poison pills were removed and a clean bill sent back to the House. Over in the House every Democrat who stood and spoke explained exactly what would happen to each bill if it were sent to the Senate but their words were ignored. There was no moment in which the Republicans in the House were not completely informed of the future fate of the bills they were authoring. Really, I saw it on C-Span, without commentary from anyone.
Seriously folks, if you want to know what's going on on this or other matters of Government don't trust broadcast or cable news, go directly to the source. See for yourself, and be amazed how much other news sources manipulate their reporting of events to make a statement.
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