“All spending bills must originate in the House. Obamacare was started in the Senate by using an appropriations bill already passed in the house, and amended it by striking every single word out of the bill, including the title, and amending it with the Obamacare bill language.”
Wow.
McConnell was there then. He learned the hard way how legislation can be rammed through.
It was done by Dingy Harry Reid.
If you're interested in history, here's a read:
It is WaPo, and is explaining how Mitch McConnell was "undoing" Obamacare, but the relevant part is:
"But here is where it gets complicated — and more opaque. Working secretly in his office, much like Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) merged the two committee bills and unveiled his own version of a health-care bill on Nov. 18 that was scored by the Congressional Budget Office."In a bit of legislative maneuvering, Reid offered his text as an amendment to a completely different House bill — the Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009. That’s because this bill had been sitting on the Senate Calendar of Business, avoiding the need for Reid to obtain unanimous consent to bring it up. This bill was also already obsolete — the issue had been taken care of in another bill — and so it was an ideal vehicle to start debate on the Senate floor. Reid inserted the text into the shell of the old bill."
BTTT!