The last month has been difficult for MSNBC host and PBS News Hour contributor Jonathan Capehart’s intellectual consistency, as he can’t decide whether the government shutdown is proof that Democrats are finally growing a spine or, as he claimed on Friday, whether “there’s a meanness and a cruelty” to the shutdown that is all Republicans’ fault.
Lumping in flight cancellations, the argument over expanded Obamacare subsidies, and SNAP benefits, Capehart theorized, “There are multiple pressure points here that precede the air traffic controllers. The exchanges, they opened up, the health care exchanges. Folks are finding out right now how much their health premiums are going to shoot through the roof at the beginning of the year. There's the SNAP benefits issue, which the administration — thankfully, apparently, just before we went on air, a federal judge said, no, you — Mr. President, we are not going to hear your case. The lower court ruling stands.”
The Supreme Court has since blocked that order while litigation continues. Nevertheless, Capehart continued, “And it just — to me, it seems like there is a — there's a meanness and a cruelty here when you put all of these things together, using the shutdown, using these things to pressure Democrats to come to the table and come up with a deal.”
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