‘We Have No Idea What’s Being Proposed. There’s a Group of Guys in a Back Room Somewhere That Are Making These Decisions.’
Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill blasted the Republican Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Thursday, charging Republicans with working to secretly draft and pass their ObamaCare repeal bill. She decimated Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) for refusing to allow any Democratic input or amendments to the legislation, and for refusing to even hold any hearings before pushing it to the floor with the goal of passing it with “50 votes and the vice president.”
McCaskill, a centrist Democrat from Missouri and former prosecutor, opened by asking Chairman Hatch, “will we have a hearing on the health care proposal?”
“I think we’ve already had one,” Hatch curiously responded.Â
McCaskill corrected the senior Senator from Utah, saying she was referring to the bill the Republican Senate is drafting in response to the House’s TrumpCare legislation that passed last month.
Hatch, pausing and seemingly confused, was forced to have an aide step up to the dais and whisper in his ear a response for him to share. She clearly could be heard in his microphone, and he repeated much of what she offered.
Acting as if he had not just been told what to say, Hatch, the longest-serving Republican Senator in U.S. history, told McCaskill, “I don’t know if there’s going to be another hearing but we’ve invited you to participate and give your ideas.”
That is false, and McCaskill took the opportunity to make clear just how offensive his claim is.
“No, no, that’s not true, Mr. Chairman. Let me just say, I watched carefully all of the hearings that went on on the Affordable Care Act. I was not a member of this committee at the time, although I would have liked to be,” Sen. McCaskill told the Chairman. “Senator Grassley was the ranking member. 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,” the three-term senior Senator from Missouri continued, acknowledging Democrats “made mistakes” in working on the ObamaCare bill.
“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 engaged in right now. We’re not even going to have a hearing on a bill that impacts one-sixth of our economy,” McCaskill charged. “We’re not going to have an opportunity to offer a single amendment. It is all being done with an eye to try to get it by with 50 votes and the vice president.”
“I am stunned that that’s what Leader [Mitch] 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.”
As McCaskill ws speaking, it was clear another Senator was ignoring her, as his voice was picked up on a hot mic.
She concluded by urging the Republicans to give her an opportunity to offer amendments to the bill.
To be clear, as ThinkProgress reports, “Senate Republicans are launching an audacious plan to pass Trumpcare,” noting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “said he is striving to get a vote on the Republican health care bill by July 4, before Congress leaves for August recess. As ludicrous as this deadline seems, the Senate could pull it off — but it will be done without much public scrutiny.”
Sen. McConnell implemented Senate “Rule 14â€Â Wednesday to fast-track the GOP House health bill. This rule allows the Senate to skip the committee process (goodbye full senate committee debate) and instead “fast-tracks†the bill by moving it on the senate calendar so it can be brought to a vote.
Anyone wanting to protect their health care rights should call their Senators, regardless of the party they are in, to urge them to vote no one the Republican health care bill, known as the American Health Care Act or TrumpCare. You can reach your Senators even if you don’t know their names, by calling the Capitol Hill Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
Know that calling is the best way to register your comments.Â
To comment on this article and other NCRM content, visit our Facebook page.
Thanks to Daily Kos for the transcript
Â