Democratic Party News - President Obama repeatedly has broken his campaign pledge to “broadcast [health care] negotiations on C-SPAN.

By now it’s almost trite to complain that President Obama repeatedly has broken his campaign pledge to “broadcast [health care] negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are.” That doesn’t make the complaint invalid. For legislation that could so profoundly and personally affect the daily lives of every American, Congress and the White House should be more transparent and more accessible than ever before. Instead, the process has been secretive and sordid throughout.

The House passed its version of the bill on a Saturday night. The Senate held its key procedural vote at 1 in the morning, and then provided a lump of coal in our stockings by forcing full passage of its bill on Christmas Eve. The House leadership banned consideration of all but one amendment not offered by leadership itself - forbidding debate on more than 150 of them - then provided just 24 hours for members to study the bill’s final text. The Senate leadership inserted so many tawdry last-minute items that analysts are still finding jokers in the deck 11 days later.

All these shenanigans have driven approval for the government health care bills even lower in public polls than the strong majorities that already opposed them a month ago. Yet that hasn’t fazed congressional leaders. Now comes word from multiple sources that not only will Congress refuse to televise the usual Conference Committee to reconcile the two chambers’ versions of the bill, but it won’t allow a formal conference at all. Instead, a chosen few negotiators will concoct the final version out of sight, without formal rules governing the process and without a single Republican at the table. (The Washington Times)

This entry was posted on 6. January 2010 at 22:04 and is filed under Health Care Bill, Corruption And Lies, President Obama, Democratic Party. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.