While most of the attention on Capitol Hill Thursday was focused on former FBI Director James Comey’s Senate Intel testimony, Health and Human Service Secretary Tom Price was also appearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee, an opportunity Dems used to bash Senate Republicans for their Obamacare repeal efforts.
Democrats are now touting this exchange prompted by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), in which she confronts Finance Chair Chair Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who is playing a key role in the writing of the Senate bill, over the lack of public hearings planned for the legislation.
“We have no idea what’s being proposed. There’s a group of guys in a back room somewhere that are making decisions,” McCaskill said.
Awkwardly, Hatch appears thrown off by McCaskill’s questions, and an aide rushes to his side to feed him talking points, which are caught by his mic.
Earlier this week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) began the procedural mechanics that will allow the Senate GOP to bring directly to the floor, bypassing the committee process. Republicans still have a few key decisions to work out in their repeal legislation, but are expected to send a draft to the Congressional Budget Office in the hopes of bringing it to a vote soon after they see a score.
Watch the exchange, via the Senate Democrats’ Twitter account, below:
“Will there be a hearing on the health care proposal?” Senator @clairecmc asked today in the Finance Cmte. You should watch: #Trumpcare pic.twitter.com/rmKB0rGnTM
— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) June 9, 2017
Prior to passing #Obamacare
■the Senate debated 25days
■filed 506 amendments (228 from GOP)
■took 34 roll call votes
Yes, but… prior to 2017, the GOP-controlled house repealed the ACA a total of 24,788 times.
Hatch was caught flat-footed…again.
We could just do a youtube video of all the simple questions lately in Congress that result in absolute silence… Maybe just a sequence of blank stares.
Watching Senator McCaskill makes me wonder why we don’t have more women in the Congress. As a man, I have concluded that men have held exclusive power for way too long. Women’s voices hit notes we need to hear.