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Five—that's the total number of U.S. citizens who were finally allowed to remain in the Senate Finance Committee's hearing on the GOP's Graham-Cassidy healthcare repeal bill. As large hearing rooms that could have accommodated hundreds of onlookers sat empty, Republican Finance chair Orrin Hatch gaveled the meeting to order with about 20 disabilities rights activists present. Outside the hearing room doors, a line of hundreds of interested citizens snaked through the halls. But even 20 proved too many when they started chanting, "No cuts to Medicaid! Save our liberty!”
After they were forcibly removed by Capitol Police, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank writes:
[Finance Committee Chairman Orrin] Hatch returned after seven minutes and started scolding: “If you can’t be in order then get the heck out! . . . Shut that door and keep it shut!”
Who he was yelling at wasn’t clear, because after the mayhem the cops had allowed only five spectators to remain in the room — and three of them looked like lobbyists.
That’s right: Five members of the public allowed to witness the lone hearing for a plan that would cut more than a trillion dollars from health care, deny health insurance to millions and dump the whole health-care mess on ill-equipped states.
As Milbank quipped: “Maybe the Senate janitor’s closet was already booked?”
It’s honestly hard to believe Republicans even allowed this farce of a hearing to move forward. They apparently weren’t even sure the version of the Graham-Cassidy bill they were examining was the one that would come to vote.
As Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) noted in her statement announcing her opposition to the monstrosity:
Sweeping reforms to our health care system and to Medicaid can’t be done well in a compressed time frame, especially when the actual bill is a moving target. Today, we find out that there is now a fourth version of the Graham-Cassidy proposal, which is as deeply flawed as the previous iterations. The fact that a new version of this bill was released the very week we are supposed to vote compounds the problem.