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Republicans rushed health bill is everything they said they hated about Obamacare
At 4:30 am Thursday, after a 17-hour mark-up, the GOP’s health bill passed out of the Ways and Means Committee untouched.
The American Health Care Act passed out of committee exactly 58.5 hours after it was introduced on Monday evening. The committee voted in the bill’s favor without knowing how much it costs or who it covers because they voted before the Congressional Budget Office — or any other credible authority — had time to assess the bill’s likely impacts. And Republicans preferred it that way. They didn’t want to know their bill was likely to do, and they didn’t want anyone else to know, either.
I covered the first Obamacare debate back in 2009 and 2010. And this week, one thing has become quite clear: Republicans plan to move more quickly and less deliberatively than Democrats did in drafting the Affordable Care Act. They intend to do this despite repeatedly and angrily criticizing the Affordable Care Act for being moved too quickly and with too little deliberation.
. . .
The Democrats’ process wasn’t perfect. But it’s a lot better than what we’re seeing now.
Seven years later, the Republican critiques of Democratic process haven’t changed. On Tuesday, Ways and Means Chair Kevin Brady (R-TX) criticized the Affordable Care Act as “written in the dark of night and rushed through Congress.”
But at 4:30 am Thursday — when it was still quite dark here in Washington — Brady’s committee passed the American Health Care Bill.
The American Health Care Act passed out of committee exactly 58.5 hours after it was introduced on Monday evening. The committee voted in the bill’s favor without knowing how much it costs or who it covers because they voted before the Congressional Budget Office — or any other credible authority — had time to assess the bill’s likely impacts. And Republicans preferred it that way. They didn’t want to know their bill was likely to do, and they didn’t want anyone else to know, either.
I covered the first Obamacare debate back in 2009 and 2010. And this week, one thing has become quite clear: Republicans plan to move more quickly and less deliberatively than Democrats did in drafting the Affordable Care Act. They intend to do this despite repeatedly and angrily criticizing the Affordable Care Act for being moved too quickly and with too little deliberation.
. . .
The Democrats’ process wasn’t perfect. But it’s a lot better than what we’re seeing now.
Seven years later, the Republican critiques of Democratic process haven’t changed. On Tuesday, Ways and Means Chair Kevin Brady (R-TX) criticized the Affordable Care Act as “written in the dark of night and rushed through Congress.”
But at 4:30 am Thursday — when it was still quite dark here in Washington — Brady’s committee passed the American Health Care Bill.
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/9/14867490/gop-obamacare-dead-of-night