When I first heard that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had told an audience yesterday that, “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” I assumed partisan editing of the context of her comment. Talk radio host Neal Boortz was slamming her over her comment. Then I found this five second clip from YouTube and that nearly confirmed my thinking that Pelosi had made an off the cuff statement – a 5 second clip is a very short clip and perfect for distortion, I thought. It must be that opponents were attributing far more importance than justified.
Maybe not.
I found the full quote on her website, meaning it was absolutely a planned remark that she stands by.
Pelosi delivered the speech to the 2010 Legislative Conference for the National Association of Counties (NACo) on March 9. She correctly points out that, “our current system is unsustainable.” She then points to the very real battle that has taken place over health care reform, “You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other.”
It is here that she tells the audience and the nation that we must put all of our faith and trust in her, the Democratic members of Congress, and President Obama and wait until this enormous and far reaching bill is law before we can see what it really is all about. See the text of her speech to read platitudes about the vastness of what she believes is in this bill (note that you won’t learn anything about the details because as the Speaker said, we have to wait until it has been passed into law). “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.” Sounds nice, huh?
So folks, let’s just put all our trust in Congressional Democrats and the President on this massive and far reaching change to our economic and government system and wait until it is the law of the land. Then we will see what it is all about.
Trust the President and Congress, because they have done so much to earn our trust.
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I was stunned when I heard it. Great analysis, Robert.
It’s not a great sentiment, but she’s right. They’re going to have to make a lot of deals to try to get it passed, so who knows what the bill will be. Obama should have drafted his own bill and sent it to Congress.