Cognitive dissonance held the floor in the U.S. House again yesterday. First, the Republican leadership under Speaker John Boehner voted to fund the extenstion of lower rates on student loans by killing programs that provided cancer screening and similar women’s health-care service.
Minutes later, Boehner took to the well of the House to rage against the poisonous partisanship in Congress and deny that his party was engaging in a war on women:
“How in the world did we ever get here?” Boehner asked lawmakers. “Think about this: a fight being picked over an issue that everyone knew was going to be resolved; a fight being picked over an issue that there is no fight over. Democrats five years ago put this cliff in the law that would require student loan interest rates to more than double on July the 1st…
“People want to politicize this because it’s an election year, but my God do we have to fight about everything? And now we’re going to have a fight over women’s health.”
And then he slapped at the podium and shouted, “Give me a break.”
The programs Boehner and the GOP had just voted to kill included childhood immunization, screening for cervical and breast cancer and initiatives to reduce birth defects.
As GOP members stood and cheered their speaker’s remarks, a group of Democratic women members left the chamber in protest.
