Seth Meyers responds to email Paul Ryan's office sent him about the health-care bill
Last week, Seth Meyers reminded House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) how much he complained about the Affordable Care Act being pushed through too quickly in 2009, only to change his tune in 2017 when it was his Republican Party trying to pass a health-care bill. This went over in Ryan's office about as well as expanding Medicaid to cover more poor people, and aides quickly dashed off an email to Late Night, refuting Meyers' points.
"Unlike Republicans and their health-care bill, we actually read the whole email," Meyers said Monday night, adding that he "genuinely appreciated" hearing from Ryan's team, and announced there is a standing offer for Ryan to appear on the show. That being said, Meyers did not agree with the statements made in the email, starting with Ryan's office claiming the bill was not rushed. "The bill has been online for a month, went through four House committees, and the only change this week was a simple three-page amendment," the office said. This was misleading for several reasons, Meyers said, not least because many lawmakers changed their mind on the bill because of the amendment. "A lot can happen in three pages," Meyers said. "That's like saying, 'I made you a cappuccino with hot water, sugar, espresso, and one other ingredient.' You would say, 'Well, what's the other ingredient, Mr. Cosby?'"
Ryan's office also had a problem with Meyers saying the bill takes from the poor to give to the rich by enacting tax cuts for the wealthy while cutting $880 billion from Medicaid, and declaring that the bill's new provision letting states waive ObamaCare's ban on pre-existing conditions makes it even worse than the previous version. You can find out how Meyers responded in the video below. Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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