CSPAN CEO Brian Lamb sent a letter to Capitol Hill asking that the health care negotiations be more open and allow his station to broadcast them.
Nancy Pelosi refused. She actually had the chutzpah to say "There has never been a more open process for any legislation."
I guess she thinks that just because she says it, it’s true.
The Republican wing, essentially locked out of the whole process, welcomed C-SPAN’s request:
“As House Republican Leader, I can confidently state that all House Republicans strongly endorse your proposal and stand ready to work with you to make it a reality,” Boehner wrote in the letter. “Hard-working families won’t stand for having the future of their health care decided behind closed doors. These secret deliberations are a breeding ground for more of the kickbacks, shady deals and special-interest provisions that have become business as usual in Washington. Too much is at stake to have a final bill built on payoffs and pork-barrel spending.”
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), Chairman of the House Republican Conference, strongly supported the C-SPAN request.
“More than a year ago, President Obama promised voters that health care negotiations would be televised,” Pence said in a statement. “In a mad rush to get a health care bill to the president’s desk, that promise has been broken time and time again. The recent request by C-SPAN provides the president one last chance to make good on his promise for openness in the health care debate. The American people deserve a seat at the table. I call on the president, and the Democrat leadership, to take health care reform out of the smoke-filled rooms on Capitol Hill and to put it on C-SPAN.”
Obama did promise to televise everything on C-SPAN. At least eight different times:
When she was asked about Obama’s promises to televise the process, Pelosi slammed the president and replied he said a lot of things during the campaign, but that was then and this is now:
A reporter reminded the San Francisco Democrat that in 2008, then-candidate Obama opined that all such negotiations be open to C-SPAN cameras.
“There are a number of things he was for on the campaign trail,” quipped Pelosi, who has no intention of making the deliberations public.
People familiar with Pelosi’s thinking wasted little time in explaining precisely what she meant by a “number of things” — saying it reflected weeks of simmering tension on health care between two Democratic power players who have functioned largely in lock step during Obama’s first year in office.
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