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Let this be a lesson to anyone considering running for federal elected office: If you have a conscience, if you can be shamed, or if you have a tendency to avoid being the world’s biggest hypocrite, don’t run. None of these qualities will suit you well in office.
A lack of these qualities is precisely how House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, R-Calif., has not only managed to hold federal elected office for so long, but why she’s excelled in her position.
You may recall some years ago as the debate kicked off regarding Obamacare. During one particularly tone-deaf moment, Pelosi told an audience that Congress had to actually “pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it…”:
D’oh! And that’s precisely what the Democratic congressional majority did – the passed it without a single Republican vote of support, and of course then-President Obama signed it, hence it’s nickname, “Obamacare.” (RELATED: Obamacare REPEAL? It’s more like health care system COLLAPSE!)
Now, several years later, the Republican-controlled Congress and the GOP president, Donald J. Trump, are considering legislation to repeal and replace the Obamacare disaster. Only now, Pelosi is demanding that Americans find out what’s in the repeal-and-replace legislation before it is passed and signed into law.
You just can’t make this kind of naked hypocrisy up.
In a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Pelosi says:
This week, the Committees on Energy & Commerce and Ways & Means will be marking up Republicans’ long-feared bill to dismantle affordable health care. The GOP legislation will have life or death consequences for tens of millions of families across America, and extraordinary impacts on state and federal budgets long into the future.
The American people and Members have a right to know the full impact of this legislation before any vote in Committee or by the whole House.
Members must not be asked to vote on this legislation before the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation have answered the following questions about your legislation in 2018 and 2019, over the 10-year budget window, and in the decade after: How will this bill measure up to the Affordable Care Act and current Medicaid law on coverage, quality, and cost? And how will it impact Medicare solvency?
Honestly, if Ryan were to appear on national television, read this portion of the letter and then laugh uproariously, Pelosi would deserve it. The sheer arrogance it took to write something like this and send it to the House Speaker with a straight face is mind-boggling.
Now, having said that, no one in the Republican leadership is being anywhere near as secretive with the replacement legislation – called the American Health Care Act – and in fact, Ryan himself has taken the time to fully explain what is in the legislation to reporters on Friday.
Undoubtedly there will be disagreements over provisions of the AHCA – and indeed there already are. But what I find particularly galling about Pelosi’s letter is her assumption that anyone in her party has anything at all to say about this legislation. (RELATED: Trump Said To Be Open To Negotiating “Obamacare 2.0” Bill Critics Say Will Ruin GOP If It Passes.)
Under her leadership, Democrats rammed Obamacare through with legislative trickery, after repeated outright lies about what the law would and would not do (you can keep your doctor; you can keep your insurance plan; it will lower your premiums, etc.). Since then, even as the law began its death spiral, Democrats continued to defend it as though their lives depended on it.
It didn’t matter that tens of millions of Americans had health policies in name only – with deductibles far too high and premiums that were unaffordable. Nevermind that scores of health care providers stopped taking Medicaid and other taxpayer-supported health benefits because they paid so badly. Democrats continued to back Obamacare, and still do.
Pelosi’s outrageous hypocrisy aside, Democrats have no right whatsoever to expect a seat at the table of Obamacare repeal.
J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.
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