Sen. Rand Paul says the House is hiding the Obamacare replacement from him and wants to see it
House GOP leaders keeping the Obamacare replacement bill in a secure place in the basement of the Capitol Building. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kent) wants not only to see the replacement law but to share it with the rest of the United States and as of now even he can’t see the proposal.
It has been a very strange security measures for the bill, which came to light Wednesday night, underscore how politically risky repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has come to be seen in the past month by GOP leaders.
Sen. Paul has been chasing the bill around the Capitol today and he doesn’t think that his own party is playing keep away with the new version of the healthcare is funny.
“As you know with laws it’s very detailed, and sometimes they don’t tell you about the worst parts of the law — you’ve got to read the law,” Paul told reporters today. “I’m not waiting until after it passes to find out what’s in Obamacare, the new replacement bill.”
“This is being presented as if this were a national secret. As if this were a plot to invade another country. As if this were a national security. That’s wrong. This should be done openly, in the public and conservatives who have objections who don’t want Obamacare lite should be allowed to see the bill.”
Sen. Rand Paul demands a copy of the bill. This staffer says she can’t give him one. pic.twitter.com/gPo5rMsUkS
— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) March 2, 2017
Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the bill was expected to be made available to members and staffers of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday in a dedicated reading room, and that they will not be able to take copies of the bill out of that room.
House Speaker Paul Ryan later Thursday morning said the House, Senate and Trump administration are “in sync” with their plans to repeal and replace the ACA.
Ryan also said that much of the bill being worked on is modeled off prior legislation proposed by former Rep. Tom Price, now the secretary of Health and Human Services.
“This is the bill we ran on in 2016,” . “We’ve been running on repealing and replacing Obamacare since 2010.”
“We are all working off the same piece of paper, the same plan. So we are in sync.”
“The law is collapsing, and you can’t just repeal it,” Ryan said. “You have to replace it with a system that actually works.”
