What Republicans are doing with health care bill is nothing like Obamacare

Senate Democrats have started their campaign to call out Republicans on their attempt to rush the Republican health care bill to a vote before most members can find out what’s in it.

Democratic Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren says she’s received more than a thousand phone calls about this in the past week.

“People are literally in tears on the phone,” she explained. “They are scared and they are angry.”

Democratic California Senator Diane Feinstein says this is the least transparent process she’s ever seen for such a major piece of legislation.

“If there’s not going to be a hearing, we shouldn’t vote. I think, no hearing, no vote.”

But wait, you say, this is how Obamacare was passed, wasn’t it? In secret? Didn’t Nancy Pelosi famously say, “You had to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it.”

There was a fact check on that by John Cannan, a research librarian at Drexel University quoted in the Washington Post. According to him, the Obamacare process began in March 2009, about seven weeks after Obama took office, which is when Nancy Pelosi gave her famous soundbite, “You had to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it.”

But that quote actually came at the beginning of the process. There were then more than a dozen hearings between March and May of 2009.

A “discussion draft” was released on June 19, followed by more hearings. By July 14, the leadership had the text of a bill, there were more hearings, then closed-door House and Senate negotiations over the summer. Three bills were finally sent to the floor Oct. 14, and they came up with a compromise on Oct. 29, which was close to the original, but with concessions to win the votes of more conservative Democrats.

So, in fact, quite a bit different.