House Speaker Paul Ryan has another Obamacare repeal proposal up his sleeve that he's going to try to ram through the House in the next three weeks. That's despite the fact that right now he's keeping it a big secret from Democrats—and his fellow Republican maniacs—and that there isn't legislative language yet to be scored by the Congressional Budget Office. For the moment, he's keeping it all under wraps.
The document is being treated a bit like a top-secret surveillance intercept. It is expected to be available to members and staffers on the House Energy and Commerce panel starting Thursday, but only in a dedicated reading room, one Republican lawmaker and a committee aide said. Nobody will be given copies to take with them. […]
Republican leaders are trying to avoid a repeat of what happened last time. When an outdated draft leaked last week, it was quickly panned by conservatives. [NB: it wasn't declared an outdated draft until after conservatives panned it.]
"The draft of it is going to be available tomorrow for those of us on the health subcommittee to start poring through," said Representative Chris Collins of New York, a Trump ally and member of the health subcommittee of Energy and Commerce. "Unfortunately for you, we're making sure it won't be leaked."
"We're not having a hearing or anything," added Gus Bilirakis of Florida, another panel member. "But there'll be a place for us to view it, the draft."
On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said the bill is being handled under normal legislative procedures.
"We're not hatching some bill in a backroom and plopping it on the American people's front door," he said on NBC's "Today" show.
But hatching it in a back room and then plopping it out is exactly what leadership is doing. They're keeping it under lock and key, and they're not having hearings on it, and apparently it's just available to the health subcommittee members right now? Sorry, Mr. Ryan, that is far from normal legislative procedure.
This part isn't either: "It looks like, unfortunately, based on the delays, we may be marking it up and voting on it before we have a score," Collins said. He's talking about a budget score from the Congressional Budget Office, something that always happens before a bill proceeds through committee.
Here's how it is supposed to work: Hearings happen. People give testimony and ideas are explored. Those ideas are put into legislative language, vetted by legal counsel to make sure it passes muster, submitted to the CBO for a score, sent back to committee for "mark up"—another opportunity for changes, and passed out of committee to go to other committees or to the floor. That's how it should happen.
It's also supposed to be something all members get to have a say in, not just the Republicans. But this one is just for Republicans, according to what Collins told the Washington Examiner. He said the plan would be made available Thursday morning to Republicans “in a basement room of an office building that adjoins the Capitol."
And it's supposed to all be done within three weeks. Like his maniacs are going to let that happen.