Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill is all over the Internet today. This clip* – in which McCaskill calls out GOP Senator Orrin Hatch about the shameful effort of Senate Republicans to slip their Obamacare Dump & Dupe bill through the Congress with no Democratic input or public examination – is literally on every progressive blog and on news websites everywhere. And it ought to be.
Our Democratic Senator is doing what she’s good at: plain speaking. And what she’s speaking about is the shameful way that GOP Senators are trying to take away our healthcare. They’re proposing to bring up for a vote a mystery bill, composed in backrooms by a “select” group of rightwingers, schedule no hearings, and offer no chance for our Democratic Senators to offer input. They clearly thought that we’d be so distracted by the Russian president’s road-to-impeachment circus that we’d never notice.
Stop and think about this for a minute. If a political plan or proposal can’t stand the light of day, it’s got to be really bad.
How bad? This article by WaPos Greg Sargent, summarizing what is known or inferred about the bill’s contents, makes it clear that while it may not be the execrable dog’s breakfast thrown up by the House, it still makes for a pretty rotten repast – especially for those of us with preexisting conditions.
Go watch the clip now. Then phone or email Senator McCaskill and thank her for standing up for everyday Missourians.
Then go phone or email Missouri’s GOP Senator Blunt and ask him where he stands – and make it clear that we can make the ground shake for him if he’s willing to go along with the Obamacare repeal-and-replace charade the GOP Senate seems to be trying to engineer
*A transcript of McCaskill’s comments has been entered as a comment – thanks to Michael Bersin.
**1st paragraph edited slightly for clarity
The transcript:
Senator Claire McCaskill (D): So my first question that I would make of the chair is will we have a hearing on the health care proposal?
Senator Orin Hatch (r): Will we?
Senator McCaskill (D): Yes.
Senator Hatch (r): Uh, I think we’ve already had one, but.
Senator McCaskill (D): No, I mean on the proposal that you’re planning to bring to the floor of the Senate for a vote. Will there be a hearing?
Senator Hatch (r): Well I don’t know that there’s going to be another hearing but we’ve invited you [crosstalk] to participate and give your ideas.
Senator McCaskill (D): So. [crosstalk] No that’s not true Mr. Chairman. Let me just say I, I watched carefully all of the hearings that went on on the Affordable Healthcare Act. I, um, was not a member of this committee at the time, although I would have liked to be. Uh, Senator Grassley was, uh, the ranking member. Uh, Dozens of Republican amendments were offered and accepted in that hearing process and when you say that you’re inviting us, and I heard you Mr. Secretary just say, we’d love your support. For what?
We don’t even know, we have no idea what’s being proposed. There’s a group of guys in a back room somewhere that are making these decisions. There were no hearings in the House. I mean listen, this is hard to take. Because I know we made mistakes on the Affordable Healthcare Act, Mr. Secretary. And one of the criticisms we got over and over again, that the vote was partisan. Well you couldn’t have a more partisan exercise than what you’re, what you’re engaged in right now.
We’re not even going to have a hearing on a bill that impacts one sixth of our economy. We’re not gonna have an opportunity to offer a single amendment. It is all being done with an eye to try to get it by with fifty votes and the Vice President.
I am stunned that that is what leader McConnell would call regular order, which he sanctimoniously said would be the order of the day when the Republicans took the Senate over. We are now so far from regular order the new members don’t even know what it looks like. And I know that doesn’t make you happy Mr. Chairman or Senator Grassley because you have been in the Senate so long you know the value of the hearing process and the amendment process. And even though the vote ended up being partisan, just as yours will be, the amendment process wasn’t.
Both of you had amendments that were put into that bill, as did other members of this committee. I want that opportunity. Give me that opportunity. Give me an opportunity to work with you.
That’s what is so discouraging about this process.
Thanks, Mike – transcript master!