“The reason the American people didn’t accept this health care bill is because they knew it had no bipartisan support, in addition to the fact that it was an awful proposal cooked up behind closed doors with a whole lot of special deals.”
That’s Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, from Jan. 2010, referring to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
The senator continued, “ ... that’s not the way to operate...the president ought to take this as a message to recalibrate how he wants to govern….”
McConnell’s assessment of the process for adopting the ACA was at best, inaccurate. The major parts of the bill passed after 160 hours of Senate floor debate, and ultimately included 171 Republican amendments. The current Senate bill was released on June 22 for public review; purportedly, McConnell is pushing to get this to a vote as quickly as possible.
So the secretive, undemocratic process as described and blasted by McConnell and other Republicans in 2010 now has merit as an acceptable way to craft and adopt legislation, now that Republicans are pushing their own health care bill. What was once scurrilous is now consecrated. Just how many sides of his lipless mouth can McConnell speak out of?
I would encourage people to continue to contact Sen. Cory Gardner (www.gardner.senate.gov/contact-cory/email-cory) or call (202) 224-5941 or 259-1231 to tell him this is not acceptable. Tell him that without significant public review, which would mean more than a week, to vote against the bill and stop this travesty.
Josh Joswick
Bayfield
