After months of a looming government shutdown, the drama came to a head this week, with silly politics and partisan accusations as the battle over the continuing resolution exploded. The bill itself also exploded, as what was intended as a stopgap solution swelled into a 1,500-page monolith of pork.
The political games were in full swing and attempts were being made to take advantage of this spending opportunity with only a three-day approval window. Fortunately, this inflated illusion was exposed as a sham, and it skyrocketed as soon as the experiment began. Then we saw another DC tactic in action whenever spending cuts threatened – cutting sensitive programs instead of wasteful pork. For this iteration, the hackers raised children with cancer, and it was as desperate a move as it easily turned out to be a baseless accusation.
The attempt to blame Republicans and then Elon Musk for allegedly killing the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act – the bill was explained in detail by RedState’s Teri Christoph – exposed both the desperation of Democrats and the vapid journalism of sycophantic members of the Press. The attempt to funnel intolerance to the right while preserving the sanctity of government bloat was too great for journalists to resist.
Facts were quickly thrown aside to advance this narrative and demonize Republicans for supposedly cowardly decisions.
And there you have it. New bill eliminates funding for this bipartisan pediatric cancer research program. $190 million – a compact decrease comparatively – is now gone. must be passed at another point if it can be passed at all. https://t.co/pPwhYNmRGv
— Sam Stein (@samstein) December 19, 2024
Here, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes takes things down to the basic level of practical talking points and delivers what he was sure would be a light-hearted, shareable nugget on the topic.
The richest man in the world stole $190 million from children with cancer. https://t.co/DvbgvTMvDf
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) December 19, 2024
These are supposed journalists who had no interest in providing the details or even dealing with the background of this bill. The Bulwark’s Sam Stein calls out names like Eric Cantor and Barack Obama. This shows how long this bill on childhood cancer has been around, but suddenly this bill, which has been passed not only over the years but also by governments in different versions, is now seen as an critical passage that will prevent the deaths of children with cancer will prevent! But it’s even more misleading.
Blaming Republicans isn’t just an exaggerated accusation – it’s an outright lie. The bill passed the Republican-led House of Representatives in March of this year. By an overwhelming majority, 384 votes to 4. At that time it was moved to the Senate, where it has remained ever since. That would put Chuck Schumer in charge. And if you want to complain about children with cancer being used as a political wedge, then the blame should be placed squarely in Schumer’s lap, since he only took this file off his desk to insert it into the CR bill as a disgrace Caused GOP to vote for first swollen issue.
The entire reason for separating the voting contributions was to avoid the political chicanery that was included in this first “emergency” bill such as granting land to DC for a possible recent NFL stadium. Therefore, Republicans and Musk suggested that if something is actually critical to passage, they should draft an independent bill to be voted on. After the risk-taking politics were exposed, this bill finally gained life on Schumer’s desk. Once Democrats and the press made children with cancer an critical issue, they could not justify shelving the bill again.
And would you look at that? We saw the Gabriella Miller Act pass through the Senate with relative ease on Friday evening, after it was actually made a separate entity… and after it was actually allowed to be voted on in the Senate. Notice how Mr. Stein reported this development without mentioning his previous promise that this was not possible and the bill was essentially dead.
NEW – Tonight, in a scarce unanimous vote, the Senate passed legislation extending the Gabriella Miller Act (they passed the House version, which is five years at 12.6 million per year) to fund childhood cancer research. It will now land on Biden’s desk and become law.…
— Sam Stein (@samstein) December 21, 2024
These developments are precisely the reasons for Donald Trump’s re-election in November. Not just the cynical machinations involved in what we were told was a crucial piece of legislation, but also the partisan games played in the press by misattributing the movements behind the scenes. At the same time, they wonder why people are leaving their stores.
