[direwolf]

Meanwhile, Republicans continue to draft their HC bill in secret in the hopes of rushing it to the Senate floor for voting.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/repub...arm-democrats/

SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL, D-Mo.: "We have no idea what’s being proposed. There’s a group of guys in a backroom somewhere that are making these decisions. There were no hearings in the House. I mean, listen, this is hard to take, because I know we made mistakes on the Affordable Health Care Act, Mr. Secretary.

And one of the criticisms we got over and over again, that the vote was partisan. Well, you couldn’t have a more partisan exercise than what you’re engaged in right now. We’re not even going to have a hearing on a bill that impacts one-sixth of our economy."

McCaskill wants something called regular order. What is that? Well, it used to be the normal process. A bill goes through committee hearings, where experts and those affected by an issue ring in.

Then senators on the committee can vote to change the bill with amendments. And then, when a bill gets to the Senate floor, regular order means another chance to change it with amendment votes there too.

In 2009, with the Affordable Care Act, two Senate committees held three months of hearings and went through weeks of voting on amendments.

Instead, this time around, Senate Republicans have indicated they may send their health care bill straight to the Senate floor with little, maybe no chance to amend it. And they have held no hearings on the bill so far.

In the end, it took Democrats 14 months to pass their health care bill in 2009 and 2010. That’s why this moment is critical. The Senate will make or break health care reform. And Senate leaders, including Hatch, have said they want to pass a full health care bill by the end of this month. That’s just nine or 10 legislative days away.