Too often, I hear that Democrats are bad people who blocked a Medicare For All single-payer healthcare system in 2009 for the sake of the Affordable Care Act, which they enacted instead.
It’s amazing how many different versions of this tale get passed around. If fact, I noticed an example of it in a story that was posted at Daily Kos, today.
Once again, on a website devoted to Democratic politics, I find content that trash talks Democrats with a falsehood. This isn’t constructive criticism.
Let’s check a trustworthy source, the Congressional Record, to find out what really happened to the Medicare For All single-payer proposal. Check the edition dated December 16, 2009.
Senator Bernie Sanders came to floor with a historic amendment. It would have struck all of the language that was in the Affordable Care Act and replaced with Sanders’ 700-page Medicare For All amendment. This wasn’t the kind of ambush Republicans try with legislation that they write in secret during the dead of night. The Congressional Record of December 16 says that the amendment was printed in the edition of December 2.
The regular order of the Senate is to read amendments aloud before proceeding to a debate and roll call vote. For practical reasons, it’s customary for the Senate to dispense with the reading of lengthy bills and amendments if there’s unanimous consent to do so and the members had time to read the text. In 2009, Republican obstruction slowed the proceedings all year. By December, the calendar was full of important measures that were still pending. Reading a 700-page amendment would have brought other business to a grinding halt.
When Sanders asked for the unanimous consent that Senators always gave out of courtesy to each other, Senator Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma objected. It was almost as if Sanders couldn’t believe his ears. He asked for unanimous consent again. Coburn objected again. Sanders asked why and Coburn stated drily, “Regular order.”
Here’s the relevant transcript from the Congressional Record:
Sanders withdrew the amendment and spoke extemporaneously for 30 minutes. The first time I saw his speech, I was stunned by the raw emotion that poured out. By the time Sanders’ voice started to crack, I was in tears, which doesn’t happen often for me.
Here’s the transcript. The video clip is below. Listen closely to every word and teach your children.