With
the midst of the government shut down, Charlie Dent is getting a whole lot of
press. In the past few days, he’s made national news; which could be
interpreted as a good thing or a bad thing. The government shutdown was due to
government being unable to settle on how they will spend their money in the
next fiscal year, mostly because Republicans want to defund Obamacare and
Democrats refuse to sign anything that does that. Charlie Dent, as we know is a
registered republican and has tended to vote with his party about 90 percent of
the time (Wikipedia). Although his party loyalties seem to be strong, he has
always been known as a center republican (Wikipedia). Regardless of what type
of Republican Charlie is, he sides with his party on being against Obamacare.
He has publically stated his disapproval of Obamacare many times, explaining
why he voted for the House resolution to defund Obamacare in the first part of
this budget bill. To the everyday person, Charlie was just voting along party
lines. But an issue came out when people began complaining that Charlie had
told his constituents that he would not vote to defund Obamacare because he
knew it would in turn cause a government shutdown. Therefore, Charlie could
look like a two-faced representative in a way. To add to this, Charlie is now
trying to convince the rest of his party to vote on the clean bill that has
nothing to do with Obamacare and deal with that issue at a later date. Charlie
is clearly deviating away from his party on this issue. Some felt that this
move was also a two-faced move by Charlie Dent, because he voted one way and is
now all of a sudden changing his vote. The whole defunding food stamps and then
promoting anti-poverty stunt probably isn’t going to help his cause either.
John Boehner even went as so far to call Charlie Dent a hypocrite for his
actions in Congress this week (Huffington Post, 2013). Going even further, tea
party members called Dent a “RINO” or a “Republican In Name Only” (The Patriot
News, 2013). If the tea party and radical republicans are able to pass this
opinion of Dent onto other Republicans, they could go so far as to choose
another Republican to fund for the primary election next November. This seems
unlikely though, because Dent’s constituents know that he is a strong member of
Congress and they also tend to be more on the moderate side, right alongside
with Dent on this issue.
This
may not be such a bad move for Charlie. He is still standing on his stance
against Obamacare, but he rationally believes that Congress should take up this
issue at a later time (The Patriot News, 2013). Charlie doesn’t see how this government
shut down is going to help defund Obamacare. In the Patriot News, Dent claimed,
“We need to elect enough Republican
senators who are prepared to vote to defund or repeal it, and we also need a
president other than someone named Barak Obama to sign the bill.” But for now,
Dent is correct in these statements. He knows that regardless of how Congress
chooses to compromise, Obama would clearly veto any bill that even touched
Obamacare in a negative way. He is coming to his senses in seeing that it has
to be the Republican Party that compromises. People are blaming the Republican
Party for this shut down, and Dent wants to end that quickly. In a recent CNN
poll, the majority of the American people believe this is the Republicans fault
(CNN, 2013). Charlie doesn’t seem to want to be grouped with the Republicans at
fault, knowing it could hurt him in his re election next year. He is not
changing his stance on any issues; he is still strongly opposed to Obamacare
but he just wants to get the government back running. As one of his constituents,
I feel that Dent made a very risky decision coming out formally against his own
party, but I think it will benefit him in the long run. This isn’t the first
time Dent has gone against his party on major issues, so this may not be as
“hypocritical” as it seems. Recently, Dent separated himself from his party on
the major issue of abortion. He slammed his own party, claiming to be shocked
by some republican’s stupidity on the issue (Huffinington Post, 2013). It seems
that Dent has never been afraid to deviate from his party. Unlike a lot of
members in Congress, Dent isn’t tied down by the decisions of the Republican
Party; he wants a voice in Congress. If it’s the voice he’s looking for, he
definitely got it after making national news on the government shut down.
What’s the saying? Any press is good press? We’ll see if that holds true for
Dent.
References
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