After the 2009 Louisiana Purchase and the Nebraska Compromise, Obamacare needs more secret deals to pass.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plan to bypass the traditional conference committee process, in which lawmakers from both parties and chambers meet to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill. Instead, they will hold meetings behind closed doors among Democrats only to come up with the final bill.
Here is candidate Obama promising transparency in all meetings where laws are written:
“…when I am President, meeting where laws are written will be more open to the public. No more secrecy. That’s a commitment I make to you as President.”
Well, we shouldn’t be surprised by another broken promise.
On December 30, C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb wrote to leaders in the House and Senate urging them to open “all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings,” to televised coverage on his network.
“The C-SPAN networks will commit the necessary resources to covering all of the sessions LIVE and in their entirety,” he wrote.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi declines. Note how she laughs at promises Obama “made on the campaign trail:”
Instead of answering the question, she summons her aide who tries to claim that town hall meeting around the country where opponents vocally expressed their opposition to Obamacare are a sign of transparency. Pelosi and her aid seem to have difficulty distinguishing between Obama’s promise to have meetings where laws are written open to the public and meetings organized by individual members of Congress where concerned citizens show up to express their outrage.
On Wednesday, January 6 a new website will launch with a petition to demand that the health care legislative process be more open: www.letthecamerasin.com. Their Facebook page is already up.
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