Ken Berwitz

When Nancy Pelosi tells the truth, it deserves a headline.  I mean, how often does it happen?

But wait until you see what "truth" Ms. Pelosi told.

From James Taranto, writing for the Wall Street Journal:

Pelosi's Pig in a Poke

"We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."

By JAMES TARANTO

Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned up yesterday at the Washington conference of the National Association of Counties, and she engaged in a little cheerleading for ObamaCare:

 

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.

 

Yes, reader, she really said, "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." If you don't believe us, ask YouTube. And Pelosi is not alone in equating knowledge of the bill's contents to enactment of it. Consider the lead paragraph of this Associated Press dispatch about Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, who cast the deciding vote allowing passage of the Senate's version of ObamaCare;

 

A moderate Democrat insisted Tuesday she remained opposed to pushing a health care bill through the Senate with a simple majority vote, despite saying she wanted to see what was in the legislation.

 

These people are trying to sell us a pig in a poke. Actually, that's not quite right: They've failed to sell us a pig in a poke. At nearly every opportunity, voters have responded to the ObamaCare sales pitch by shouting "No!"--even going so far as to elect a Republican to the Senate from Massachusetts.

 

But if Pelosi and President Obama have their way, we will get their pig, and will we ever pay for it. Is it any wonder that, as the Associated Press reports, "Americans have come to detest Congress ever more deeply as it nears the end of a nasty fight over health care"?

A 2,700 page bill, encompassing an estimated one-sixth of the entire US budget, and Ms. Pelosi - along with Mr. Obama and Mr. Reid - are demanding that it be passed without anyone but a a few Democrats in congress (if even that many) knowing what the eff is in it.

Republicans don't know what's in it either. But they are at even more of a disadvantage, since they also had nothing to do with putting it together.  In the spirit of Obama bipartisanship, Republicans were allowed to participate in writing this monstrosity, only in offering amendments after the fact. 

And, not incidentally, if you believe virtually every major poll, the public has been more than clear in rejecting it as well.

Now tell me why the Obama administration is in full battle-mode to pass this legislation. 

-Is it for Barack Obama's monumental ego, so that he won't be embarrassed by a defeat on one of his major initiatives? 

-Is it to make his hard left, sorosian base happy so their millions (yes, lots of left wing activists, george soros being primary among them, are fabulously wealthy) will keep flowing?

-Is it one or more other reasons? (To readers who disagree with me:  This is your chance to pipe up and say "Maybe he wants to pass it because it's the right thing to do!"  But since you don't know what's in it - if most of congress doesn't, you don't either - forget about it.  You're dead before you start).

Whatever the reason, wouldn't it be a good idea if someone knew what they were voting on?

The 2010 elections cannot come fast enough.  And that goes double for 2012.