To no one’s surprise, today Senate Democrats blocked the latest Republican spending bill that would have defunded Planned Parenthood, just as they promised.

But get a load of how The Hill describes this:

The Senate on Thursday rejected a short-term spending bill that would defund Planned Parenthood, thwarting the opening move by Republican leaders to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1.

Uh, wait just a minute here. This was a move by Republicans to avoid a government shutdown? Who are they kidding? That’s ridiculous. It’s the Republican Party that’s threatening to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood, not the Democrats.

This is extortion, pure and simple. The Republicans are essentially saying that unless Democrats do as they want and help the GOP destroy Planned Parenthood — based on dishonest edited and distorted videos produced by right wing religious fanatics — they’re going to hold the government itself hostage. It’s outrageous, it really is.

And McConnell issued the following sleazy statement, just to drive this point all the way home.

After the vote, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filed a new short-term spending bill that would fund the government and Planned Parenthood.

“I regret the Democratic leadership determined a crisis would be necessary to advance a policy aim of growing the government and that our colleagues decided accordingly to block every single funding bill,” McConnell said. “We’ve been forced to pursue a continuing resolution as a result.”

It’s really disappointing to see media outlets like The Hill falling for the GOP’s blatantly deceptive way of framing this crazy effort to blame the Democratic Party.