Republican erupts at Democrat during shutdown hearing: 'My people aren't getting paid thanks to you'
Tensions flared at a House hearing to advance legislation aimed at ending the government shutdown on Tuesday night, with two senior lawmakers on opposite sides of the aisle trading barbs...
By Fox News · Fox News
Tensions flared at a House hearing to advance legislation aimed at ending the government shutdown on Tuesday night, with two senior lawmakers on opposite sides of the aisle trading barbs over the fallout. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., clashed with Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee repeatedly at the outset of the hearing. Cole accused Democrats of derailing the federal government, while McGovern railed against the GOP's refusal to attach provisions extending expiring enhanced Obamacare subsidies to its funding bill. "This is the stuff you said you would never do. ‘We would never shut down the government. We would never do this.' That's exactly what you've done," House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said a short while later. "You're putting thousands of people out of work." McGovern, who said emphatically that his constituents were "getting screwed," said, "You tried over 50 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act," Obamacare's formal name. 'THE PANDEMIC'S OVER': GOP, DEM SENATORS SPAR ON CAMERA OVER COSTLY OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES He said he was getting calls from constituents who were "out of their minds" trying to figure out how to pay for healthcare without the subsidies." "Well the most immediate crisis in my district are the thousands of workers that you and your colleagues have put out of work, that aren't getting a paycheck," Cole said. "They're the ones that keep the airplanes flying. They're the ones that do the national weather center. They're wondering why they're not getting paid." McGovern shot back, "You get no calls about healthcare?" "We could have had these debates, we could have had these arguments. Why are they being held hostage?" Cole continued. "The healthcare issue you're talking about is a subsidy you passed on your own, you said it was COVID-related…The most immediate crisis in my district, you've created. My people aren't getting paid thanks to you and your colleagu…