In my last post, I summarized why the bill is a travesty. It’s also worth looking at why the process that brought this bill to the brink of passage has been a travesty. So here is a non-exhaustive list of things the Democrats had to do to get here:
- Ignore the will of the American people, of course.
- Abandon every pretense of transparency.
- Shamelessly game the Congressional Budget Office.
- Buy votes with special deals for certain states (Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, and Nebraska, among others) and for labor unions.
- Buy the support of the American Medical Association by promising a permanent Medicare reimbursement fix, then renege.
- Buy the support of pharmaceutical companies, then renege.
- Attempt to buy the support of medical device companies, then punish them for refusing.
- Adopt the Slaughter rule (although they might back off this).
- Promise to ram a reconciliation bill through the Senate. (Whether they actually keep the promise remains to be determined.)
- Use a manager’s amendment after previously condemning them.
- Accept Roland Burris — a perjurer appointed by a criminal — to the Senate, rather than risk a special election.
- Shamelessly change the law in Massachusetts to allow the governor to appoint a Senator.
- Steal the Senate election in Minnesota.
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