As DC Democrats slink behind closed doors to craft a final health-care bill — thousands of pages long and sure to sap the nation’s economic future — Americans need to ask: Just what are Dems so ashamed of?
“We will do what is necessary to pass the bill,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted, as she and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid moved to forgo a panel to finalize legislation.
Instead, they’ll build their Frankenstein’s monster of a bill in secret, mocking democratic principles all the way.
So much for President Obama’s vows of transparency — and bipartisanship.
“We’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN,” Candidate Obama vowed back in 2008, “so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents . . . That approach, I think, is what is going to allow people to stay involved.”
That is, until Pelosi, Reid & Co. hide in the back rooms buying votes — more Cornhusker Kickbacks, anyone? — and doing all manner of secret violence to an industry that comprises one-sixth of the US economy.
“My Republican colleagues and the American people have been largely shut out . . . as Democrat leaders packaged their health-care bills behind closed doors and layered them with billions of dollars in sweetheart deals,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said.
C-SPAN itself called on Congress to open talks: “President Obama, Senate and House leaders . . . have all talked about the value of transparent discussions,” Chief Executive Brian Lamb wrote.
“Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation,” he said, “we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American.”
Then again, we can think of a few things Dems might not want to discuss publicly:
* The (misnamed) Cadillac tax. While Obama vowed no middle-class tax hikes, the Senate would slap pricier health plans with a huge 40 percent surcharge. Fact is, some 95 percent of those hit would be folks making less than $250,000 a year, and 50 percent would make under $100,000.
* The Mayo Clinic’s ban on Medicare. That clinic, Obama said, was a model for reform. But Medicare doesn’t pay enough to providers. So doctors and clinics like Mayo are opting out, even as ObamaCare would cut $500 million from Medicare.
* The already pledged bribes to senators like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu — and other sweeteners not yet public.
* Questions about tax subsidies for abortions and illegal immigrants.
* The devastating fiscal and economic hit on individual states. Like New York.
No doubt, New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are relieved that talks will be secret: Obamacare’s tax hikes and Medicare cuts will sock New Yorkers harder than other folks, even as Albany loses out on perhaps $1 billion in Medicaid funds.
Better not to shine a light on that downer. Or any other, Dems say openly.
“Now is not the time to get stuck on any one point,” Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) said. “The important thing for us now is to get a bill done.”
And to hell with democracy.