Some of the key GOP players who are now trying to push secret health care legislation over the finish line supported total legislative transparency back when Obamacare was being advanced through Congress.
The Senate is rushing to vote on its version of American Health Care Act (AHCA), even though the process of crafting the legislation has been totally secret. The legislative text of the bill hasn’t been released, preventing widespread press coverage about the details of the health care effort.
That’s a far cry from early 2010, when then-U.S. Reps. Mike Pence, Tom Price, and Paul Ryan co-sponsored a resolution that would have required all health care negotiations to be made public and broadcast on C-SPAN.
The resolution was part of a Republican effort to make a fuss about the legislative process that culminated in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was largely passed through regular order after 160 hours of debate on the Senate floor, and which included 171 Republican amendments.
House Resolution 847 was entitled: “Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that any conference committee or other meetings held to determine the content of national health care legislation be conducted in public under the watchful eye of the people of the United States.” It concluded like this:
At the time, in a statement published by Human Events, Pence blasted closed-door negotiations and accused President Obama of unnecessary haste in working toward the goal of passing health care legislation that Pence characterized as “a hostile takeover of one-sixth of the American economy.”
Pence added:
More than a year ago, President Obama promised voters that health care negotiations would be televised. In a mad rush to get a health care bill to the president’s desk, that promise has been broken time and time again… The American people deserve a seat at the table. I call on the president, and the Democrat leadership, to take health care reform out of the smoke-filled rooms on Capitol Hill and to put it on C-SPAN.
Pence participated in a press conference with Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) to publicize the transparency resolution. During the presser, Buchanan said, “The American people have the right to know what’s going on, especially on something that’s going to impact everybody whether you’re two, or 102.”
Price also raised questions in Human Events about the impact closed-door negotiations would have on the ACA, saying, “The question now is how many Democrats are getting a deal and which special interests will get their favored provisions slipped in. The fact is the abuse of process taking place is outrageous, and Americans will not stand for this sleazy backroom dealing.”
I'm supporting H.Res. 847, the “Sunshine Resolution,” which would let the public into the room for the Dems’ closed-door health care talks.
— Tom Price (@RepTomPrice) January 14, 2010
Ryan took a similar stance on transparency, saying, “Congress is moving fast to rush through a health care overhaul that lacks a key ingredient: the full participation of you, the American people.”
The transparency resolution was also co-sponsored by a number of House Republicans who now serve in the Senate and will soon vote on the AHCA, including Jeff Flake (AZ), Roy Blunt (MO), John Boozman (AR), Shelley Moore Capito (WV), Dean Heller (NV), and Jerry Moran (KS).
Fast forward to 2017. Health care still accounts for one-sixth of the economy, and Congress is still supposed to serve the people. But less than a decade later, Vice President Pence, House Speaker Ryan, and Health and Human Services Secretary Price now all support passage of a health care bill that has been negotiated entirely in secret and that still hasn’t been subjected to public scrutiny eight days before a planned Senate vote.
On May 31, Pence retweeted Trump’s call for swiftly passing the GOP health care bill despite the lack of transparency around the process.
Hopefully Republican Senators, good people all, can quickly get together and pass a new (repeal & replace) HEALTHCARE bill. Add saved $'s.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017
During congressional testimony last week, Price — who has been publicly pushing for speedy passage of the AHCA — admitted he hasn’t even seen text of the Senate version of the bill. Pressed by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) about how that’s possible, Price said, “I’ll leave the Article One branch of the Constitution to determine how the Article One branch works.” (Article One outlines powers granted to the legislative branch.)
Ryan — who shepherded through the House a version of the AHCA that would result in 23 million American losing their health insurance — has dismissed questions about Republicans’ secretive process.
Back in 2010, smearing Democrats as corrupt back-room deal-makers was good politics for Republicans, who were the minority party in both chambers of Congress. But now that they’re in the majority in both chambers, secrecy serves their cause, as it allows senators who aren’t in the all-male health care working group to publicly criticize the process while not taking a position on the actual substance of the bill or announcing what their vote will ultimately be until the last possible minute.
The Senate text of the AHCA is scheduled to be released Thursday, just one week before Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) is planning to force a floor vote. On Monday, McConnell wouldn’t promise Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) more than a few hours of public debate about the AHCA before he brings it to a vote.
But McConnell also expressed very different values about legislative process in January 2010, telling MSNBC, “The reason the American people didn’t accept [the ACA] is ’cause they knew it had no bipartisan support, in addition to the fact that it was an awful proposal cooked up behind closed doors with a whole lot of special deals.”