I have a few thoughts to offer about the way reporters cover Congressional process, based on my personal experience. 1/
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First, baseline: the legislative abuses McConnell has committed on tax reform & ACA repeal are mind-boggling & unprecedented. That's just a fact. Whataboutists will yell "nuclear option" but that was a last resort arrived at after years of earnestly trying every alternative. 2/
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Adam Jentleson 🎈 Retweeted Senator Dick Durbin
Folks should check with the Senate historian, but I'm willing to bet that there is ZERO precedent for re-writing by hand- literally in the margins - a massive bill that has not gone through the proper committee process hours before a final passage vote. 3/https://twitter.com/SenatorDurbin/status/936738041087037440 …
Adam Jentleson 🎈 added,
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Adam Jentleson 🎈 Retweeted Senator Dick Durbin
But Dems will be lucky to generate half as much attention for this massive, historic abuse as Rs generated over their BS mantra of "read the bill" because Republicans are great at faking outrage about process and institutions, and reporters eat it up. 4/https://twitter.com/SenatorDurbin/status/936738041087037440 …
Adam Jentleson 🎈 added,
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"Read the bill" was based on a throwaway quote from Pelosi that Rs manufactured into a major story. It became a big story because reporters used Republicans' (feigned) outrage as the gauge for whether it was news, rather than whether the quote reflected the process itself. 5/
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In reality, Dems followed an arduous, painstaking, months-long process of crafting the ACA - dozens of hearings, hundreds of witnesses, and hundreds of REPUBLICAN amendments considered throughout the process.
@TopherSpiro lays out the receipts here. 6/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/03/03/we-wont-know-whats-in-the-republican-health-care-repeal-plan-until-they-pass-it/?utm_term=.a55046bc025f …2 replies 76 retweets 154 likesShow this thread
It's not necessarily contradictory to have a careful process *and* then some not so careful last minute changes to get to the last few votes. Not that that makes the current process OK.
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