BRIT HUME: One reason the job of House Speaker is proving hard to fill is that a significant percentage of the Republican base believes the current GOP leadership has been utterly supine, despite its congressional majorities. This notion is held dear by members of the Freedom Caucus, who helped force John Boehner out and blocked Kevin McCarthy's succession. A favorite claim of their supporters is that the GOP Congress has “given Obama everything he wants.” It is utter nonsense. Here's a partial list of items Mr. Obama has requested from Congress since the GOP took the House back in 2010: the American Jobs Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act, an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, an array of gun control measures, universal pre-kindergarten education, a week's paid sick leave for all, higher tax rates on the rich, a new minimum tax on multinational companies, overhaul and expansion of unemployment benefits. These diverse proposals have one thing in common. They went nowhere because congressional Republicans blocked them all. Of course, with Senate Democrats willing to filibuster, the president with his veto pen, and plenty of votes to sustain him, the Republican agenda hasn't gone anywhere, either. The House GOP hardliners like to characterize this as “surrender.” But a much better word for it would be stalemate. Right?
BRET BAIER (HOST): There are some lawmakers up there who say, you know what, we should just pass it. We should just pass the bills that the GOP wants to pass, and send them to the president's desk, if they can, through the Senate. And just do it. Even though they face vetoes.
HUME: Yeah, the sense seems to be that if the president had to deal with that, vetoing bills, it would change the political atmosphere and Obama would be exposed forever for what he is. Think of this: they did do that. They got the Keystone Pipeline approval measure through the House, got enough Democrats to get it voted on, it passed the Senate, it went to the president. He vetoed it, the votes were there to sustain it, and that was the end of it. And have we heard anything about in since? The answer is no.
