Walt Rubel: Repeatedly calling a bill bipartisan doesn’t make it so
Las Cruces Sun-News
Posted: 01/31/2015
I once asked U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce if the piece of legislation we were discussing was a “bipartisan bill.” He looked over to the staffer who had accompanied him to the editorial board meeting and asked if any Democrats had voted for it.
That’s not what I meant.
I meant, was it a bill crafted by Republicans and Democrats working together — I give a little, you give a little and we try to meet somewhere in the middle. The question wasn’t, where you able to peel off any red-state Democrats on this one and then call it a bipartisan bill.
It was probably a dumb question.
Last year, Rep. Donna Irwin of Deming was the only Democrat in the New Mexico House of Representatives who voted against a constitutional amendment to increase the minimum wage. On Thursday, Irwin was the only Democrat on the new House Business and Employment Committee who voted in favor of right-to-work legislation. Her vote changed what would have been a 7-6 GOP win into an 8-5 win.
But for Republicans now in control of the House for the first time in more than six decades, the value of that one vote was significant.
Based solely on Irwin’s vote, GOP leaders used the word “bipartisan” three times in a five-paragraph press release announcing the victory. We’re told that the contentious right-to-work bill is actually “bipartisan legislation” passed on a “bipartisan 8-5 vote,” that has “bipartisan support nationally.”
Read more here: http://www.lcsun-news.com/Opinion/ci_27432601/Walt-Rubel:-Repeatedly-calling-a-bill-bipartisan-doesnt-make-it-so