Charlie Dent wants to be seen as a moderate Republican. A pragmatist surrounded by loons. It might even look that way unless you are paying close attention.
Dent represents PA's 15th congressional district. A sweeping district from the Lehigh Valley out Hershey and Middletown in our county.
He has made headlines since the beginning of the government shutdown trying to come off as a moderate, calling for a "clean" continuing resolution to fund the government. He was quoted on September 28th saying
"Let's see what the Senate sends back," said Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) "If they send back another clean CR, I suspect -- again, I'm not making a decision on what's going to be on the floor -- a clean CR would likely to be on the floor at some point."
"I'm prepared to vote for a clean CR," he said. "I don't want the government to shut down."He definitely wanted to be seen as leading House Republicans back to sanity. Here is Vickers from the 15th.
A deal to end to the federal government shutdown may be in the offing, U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent said Tuesday.
During an appearance on MSNBC's “Daily Rundown” this morning, the Allentown Republican said a GOP House conference deal to end the shutdown could be sent to the Senate today.
The proposal would delay implementation of the medical device tax in the Affordable Care Act for two years, prevent members of Congress, all the White House staff from participating in the act's health care exchanges, and remove Senate language on a reinsurance tax.
We all know of course how this became an obvious dead end, but it also shows Dent's bad faith.
With the shutdown having gone on for weeks, Dent, while brandishing a claim to moderation, was no more active on the matter than anyone else in the House Republican Caucus; he was acting clearly in bad faith.
If Dent truly was concerned with the shutdown and its effects he would have signed the discharge petition when it was proposed. He didn't and the shutdown went on for 16 useless days. Geeting explains it best.
Charlie Dent is in lockstep with House Republicans on the goal of defunding Obamacare, repealing Obamacare, and replacing it with hand-waiving at capping damages in medical malpractice lawsuits and similarly ineffectual policies.
He’s been called a moderate in the press recently because he publicly disagreed with a tactic – shutting down the government – House Republicans wanted to use to try to defund Obamacare. He correctly predicted that wouldn’t work to defund Obamacare. But he’s still for defunding Obamacare and replacing it with nothing even closely approximating universal insurance coverage. One wonders what he would’ve done had he judged the shutdown to be an effective tactical move.Also, how can we forget that time he voted for H.R. 3 which redefined rape?
