A small group of Senate Republicans is writing the Senate version of the House GOP's American Health Care Act behind tightly closed doors, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to push the bill through this month with zero public hearings, no open drafting sessions, and maybe without even letting Senate Democrats read the bill before the vote. Democrats are not happy about this, and neither are some Senate Republicans, few of whom seem to have a clear idea of what will be in the legislation. The White House is encouraging the closed-door approach, but Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price testified on Thursday that he hasn't seen the bill's text, either.
"The House bill is so mean and so unpopular," Senate Republicans have opted to "just hide it from everyone," Noah said. "Republican senators are so ashamed of the health-care bill they're working on, they're actually putting it inside a porn magazine so no one will know what they're reading." McConnell insists his team isn't being secretive, just moving quickly. Noah isn't buying either part. "Shouldn't it be about doing it right, not doing it fast?" he asked. "I mean, you would think of all people, Mitch McConnell would know about 'The Tortoise and the Hare' — his cousin won that race."
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"The truth is, ObamaCare isn't perfect," Noah said. "But at least when Senate Democrats passed their initial bill in 2009 they worked on it for 11 months, and they held more than a dozen open hearings. But even with all of that, the Republicans still complained that with something so big as reforming the American health-care system, the Democrats were moving too fast and being too secret. And you'll never guess which Republican complained the most." (Spoiler: Mitch McConnell.) Watch below. Peter Weber
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