Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Healthcare Reform Behind Closed Doors

News that Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid are considering secret, closed door meetings to hammer out a final healthcare bill is rocking Capitol Hill this week and for good reason.

President Obama promised open and transparent debate on healthcare reform yet Democrats in Congress are bent on closing the doors and turning off the lights in Congress to obstruct the American people from seeing how the final bill is put together and what it will contain.

In addition, the closed-door conference will not include any House and Senate Republicans. That means a large block of the American electorate will have no voice in this critical national issue. The debate over healthcare and the legislative process to achieve healthcare reform is being transformed from an open democratic process into something that resembles an old style Politburo.

C-SPAN is taking issue with Pelosi and Reid's decision. They wrote a letter strongly urging congressional leaders to open the conference process to cameras so that the American people can see their government at work. Their request should be honored.

The entire process begs an important question - if the Democrats in Congress and President Obama are so convinced that their healthcare reform proposal is what the American people want, why are they doing everything they can to hide it from the American people?


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