New in PJ Media:
The Senate voted 51-49 on Saturday evening to begin debate on President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. Three Republicans, Ron Johnson (Wi.), Rand Paul (Ky.), and Thom Tillis (N.C.) voted no, Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) voted yes, oddly enough, and Vice President JD Vance was on hand in order to cast a tie-breaking vote in case of a 50-50 tie, but as it turned out, was not needed.
Once the vote was completed, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-Cheeseburgers) was ready to throw a big roadblock into the path of the bill’s progress, immediately forcing hapless clerks to read the entire 940-page bill out loud on the Senate floor before debate could begin.
Schumer had announced his plan earlier on Saturday afternoon: “BREAKING: I will object to Republicans moving forward on their Big, Ugly Bill without reading it on the Senate floor. Republicans won’t tell America what’s in the bill. So Democrats are forcing it to be read start to finish on the floor. We will be here all night if that’s what it takes to read it.”
Fox News noted: “Indeed, staffers were seen carting the bill onto the Senate floor in preparation for the all-night read-a-thon,” and that “Schumer’s move is expected to take up to 15 hours.”
There is no doubt that senators shouldn’t vote on a bill without knowing what’s in it, and it is salutary for the public as well to know what our lawmakers are getting us into. It is, however, the height of hypocrisy for Schumer, or any Democrat, to be insisting on transparency.
After all, it was then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who launched a thousand memes back in 2010 during the debate on Obamacare. Touting the glories of the leftist health care plan that has contributed so greatly to the decline of health care in America over the last fifteen years, Pelosi said: “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.”
Pelosi declined, however, to explain all the specific wonders of the bill, instead saying: “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, “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it” were the indelible words of one of the leaders of the same party that is now insisting that the Big, Beautiful Bill has to be read out loud on the Senate floor before debate can begin.
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Bexarkat says
Chuck Schumer calls himself the “shomer” of Israel….he is more like the ben-zona of Israel.
Thom Jefferson says
It appears that the RINO leadership of the U.S. Senate is attempting to use a rare weekend session to ramrod through the “Big, Beautiful” spending bill with the Hearing Protection Act and the SHORT Act deleted or neutered.
TODAY, please repeatedly contact your state’s U.S. Senators by phone and e-mail and demand that they over-ride the unelected Senate Parliamentarian’s recent ruling that the Hearing Protection Act and the SHORT Act did not qualify as “tax measures” under the Byrd Rule. Clearly, the National Firearms Act of 1934 IS INDEED part of the Federal tax code, and any modification to NFA-’34 is indeed “tax-related.” Tell your Senators: Vote NO, unless the Hearing Protection Act and the SHORT Act are fully restored!
Kevin Kraemer says
Grand standing and posturing is the name of our Senate and House of Representatives. Anything to get the public to look at them as they say, “Hey look at me, look what I can do!” What a bunch of self entitled cry babies!!! We the People are so tired of them pulling their shenanigans that it has made us sick. If not sick then hardened to their lies. If there was ever a time for term limits, it is now. I cannot stand how they with their elitist attitudes and opinions think they know what is best for the country as a whole. A “Despicable” lot!
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I do hope that in subsequent, smaller bills, all the “controversial” moves that weren’t included in this BBB would be brought up and passed in both House & Senate. Things like defunding PBS, NPR, gender transition surgeries, et al should all go out the window
OLD GUY says
What is truly sad is that the 940 page bill that cost who knows how much could have been narrowed down to 50 pages, but the lawyers have to make their big bucks per-page.