2. Nancy Pelosi: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
As Weigel writes, “this was the phrase that launched a thousand campaign ads.” Indeed. He adds, though, that the famous quote “wasn’t actually what she was saying,” and he provides the full quote:
You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting. But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.
Let’s put aside the fact that Pelosi thinks it’s “very, very exciting” to believe in her fantastical and counter-economical version of government-run health care. Weigel gives, I think, a little too much leeway to Pelosi here. Sure, the full context of the quote shows that “Pelosi was trying to say that the press was only reporting he-said-she-saids about the bill, and that its benefits would become clear, and popular, once it passed.” But the truth of the matter is that Pelosi didn’t know what was in it. (And she didn’t care. Pelosi only cared about getting government’s hand on the throat of our health care system). Her audience didn’t know what was in it. And the American people still don’t know what’s in it, but are learning more with each passing week — and polls show that they hate it more now than when Pelosi spoke (as Weigel notes).
Members of Congress can’t be expected to know every possible policy ramification of the legislation they pass (though they should consider the possible negative effects of their policy decisions a reason to pause.) But they should damn well know the language and mandates of the the bill they are passing. By that accurate definition of Obamacare, Pelosi instituted a legislative abomination, and the gaffe of truth. She hardly deserves being let off the hook.