Following the passage of the Republican health care bill Thursday, the House floor erupted into song. But they weren’t sounds of triumph, they were words of warning from House Democrats to the GOP.
As giddy Republicans clapped when they got the necessary 216 votes to pass the bill effectively replacing Obamacare, members of the Democratic party broke out into: “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,” singing to the conservatives in the room.
The song signaled what many Democrats believe will be a turning point for Republicans — a vote that will ultimately lose GOP members votes and end the Republican majority in the House.
This is not the first time that the primary sentiment of the Steam song, later covered by the Supremes, was evoked on the House floor. In 1993, House Republicans sang “goodbye” to Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky from Pennsylvania, who voted in favor of President Bill Clinton’s deficit-reduction package — breaking with her own previous opposition and that of her conservative district. She cast the House’s 218th and deciding vote for the bill, which went on to become law.
Margolies-Mezvinsky lost her re-election the next year.
The song has also been sung following other significant moments in US history. Obama voters chanted the song outside the White House — which at the time was still occupied by President George W. Bush — following Obama’s presidential win on election night in 2008. Crowds again sang the song outside the White House in 2011, following news that 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden had been killed.
