Tuesday, June 20, 2017 1:06:19 AM
The Secret Republican Health Care Bill Is an Affront to Enlightenment Values
"Tearex, How Republicans quietly sabotaged Obamacare long before Trump came into office"
By Brian Beutler
June 19, 2017
You have to go back to the Woodrow Wilson administration to find an example of a legislative exercise as opaque and regressive as the Republican health care bill. Back then, according to Don Ritchie, historian emeritus of the Senate, it was the Democrats who shut Republicans out of the process. But, as Ritchie told the Los Angeles Times last week, the strategy did not wear well and hasn’t been reprised in almost a century.
Until now. The GOP’s Obamacare repeal effort has been rightly criticized as secretive, partisan, and male-dominated. But an economical way to fold all of these criticisms into a single framework would be to say that the Senate Republicans writing the bill have demonstrated immense contempt for democratic and Enlightenment values.
Republicans are attempting something that hasn’t been done since before World War I, and that has rarely succeeded, precisely because the country was founded to embody nobler ideals. Rather than run draft legislation through an open committee process, Republicans have outsourced the entire deliberation to 13 male senators from 10 states. The Senate GOP advantage in small states is reflected in the working group, and then compounded by the fact that it includes both senators from Wyoming and Utah. The senators who have been looped into the process represent less than one quarter of the nation’s population. If you hail from either of the coasts, your interests are being safeguarded by zero of the senators endeavoring to overhaul the U.S. health care system.
There is no provision of Senate rules holding that legislation must run through regular order, or win the support of senators whose constituents account for half or more of the country. Republicans could pass a bill nobody has had time to read, with 50 votes, and, pending action in the House of Representatives, it would become the law we all live under. But it would not reflect the majoritarian spirit democratically enacted legislation should aspire to.
As Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill noted in a colloquy with Utah Senator Orin Hatch that went viral online almost two weeks ago, the contrast with the process that resulted in the Affordable Care Act is striking.
More, with links and video .. https://newrepublic.com/article/143392/secret-republican-health-care-bill-affront-enlightenment-values
--
Democrats Push Back As GOP Sneaks Health Bill In Secrecy | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC
Published on Jun 19, 2017
Senator Jeff Merkley talks with Rachel Maddow about the push by Senate Democrats to raise awareness of the secret, partisan
tactics Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP is using to sneak an Obamacare repeal with as little public notice as possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOXD0-EqYtc
13 Republican men, some with a history of racism and misogyny, huddled in secret to come up with something Trump first described as "great", then with a typical dose of Trump disingenuousness vaulted to "mean" .. some 23 million Americans to lose healthcare coverage? .. "massive tax breaks to the wealthiest" while "permanently cutting the social security safety net" .. "decapitating Medicaid" .. no consideration for committee review .. "no chance for amendments in committee" .. no expert input .. total lack of transparency .. no public debate .. in 2009 100 hearings in the Senate, 25 days of Senate debate .. in 2017 GOP plan one day on the Senate floor .. 100 Republican amendments went into the 2009 bill .. as Elizabeth Warren said, "Shameful!"
See also:
"GOP's Health Care Plan" is an oncoming catastrophe
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131324227
Donald Trump demands changes to ‘mean’ health bill
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132234806
Trump supporters' jaw-dropping hypocrisy
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132291829
"Tearex, How Republicans quietly sabotaged Obamacare long before Trump came into office"
By Brian Beutler
June 19, 2017
You have to go back to the Woodrow Wilson administration to find an example of a legislative exercise as opaque and regressive as the Republican health care bill. Back then, according to Don Ritchie, historian emeritus of the Senate, it was the Democrats who shut Republicans out of the process. But, as Ritchie told the Los Angeles Times last week, the strategy did not wear well and hasn’t been reprised in almost a century.
Until now. The GOP’s Obamacare repeal effort has been rightly criticized as secretive, partisan, and male-dominated. But an economical way to fold all of these criticisms into a single framework would be to say that the Senate Republicans writing the bill have demonstrated immense contempt for democratic and Enlightenment values.
Republicans are attempting something that hasn’t been done since before World War I, and that has rarely succeeded, precisely because the country was founded to embody nobler ideals. Rather than run draft legislation through an open committee process, Republicans have outsourced the entire deliberation to 13 male senators from 10 states. The Senate GOP advantage in small states is reflected in the working group, and then compounded by the fact that it includes both senators from Wyoming and Utah. The senators who have been looped into the process represent less than one quarter of the nation’s population. If you hail from either of the coasts, your interests are being safeguarded by zero of the senators endeavoring to overhaul the U.S. health care system.
There is no provision of Senate rules holding that legislation must run through regular order, or win the support of senators whose constituents account for half or more of the country. Republicans could pass a bill nobody has had time to read, with 50 votes, and, pending action in the House of Representatives, it would become the law we all live under. But it would not reflect the majoritarian spirit democratically enacted legislation should aspire to.
As Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill noted in a colloquy with Utah Senator Orin Hatch that went viral online almost two weeks ago, the contrast with the process that resulted in the Affordable Care Act is striking.
More, with links and video .. https://newrepublic.com/article/143392/secret-republican-health-care-bill-affront-enlightenment-values
--
Democrats Push Back As GOP Sneaks Health Bill In Secrecy | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC
Published on Jun 19, 2017
Senator Jeff Merkley talks with Rachel Maddow about the push by Senate Democrats to raise awareness of the secret, partisan
tactics Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP is using to sneak an Obamacare repeal with as little public notice as possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOXD0-EqYtc
13 Republican men, some with a history of racism and misogyny, huddled in secret to come up with something Trump first described as "great", then with a typical dose of Trump disingenuousness vaulted to "mean" .. some 23 million Americans to lose healthcare coverage? .. "massive tax breaks to the wealthiest" while "permanently cutting the social security safety net" .. "decapitating Medicaid" .. no consideration for committee review .. "no chance for amendments in committee" .. no expert input .. total lack of transparency .. no public debate .. in 2009 100 hearings in the Senate, 25 days of Senate debate .. in 2017 GOP plan one day on the Senate floor .. 100 Republican amendments went into the 2009 bill .. as Elizabeth Warren said, "Shameful!"
See also:
"GOP's Health Care Plan" is an oncoming catastrophe
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131324227
Donald Trump demands changes to ‘mean’ health bill
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132234806
Trump supporters' jaw-dropping hypocrisy
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=132291829
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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