’)Using whatever pathetic means they have at their disposal, Republicans in the Senate decided to read Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 767-page amendment that would create a single-payer system by putting everyone on the Medicare rolls.
Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma insisted on the reading after Democrats rejected his proposal to require health amendments be introduced 72 hours ahead of consideration and with a full cost estimate, too. He’d threatened to do the same thing for the main overhaul bill last month, but didn’t follow through.
Sanders has pulled the amendment in the interest of getting to the business senators were elected to do, but it’s clear that all the Republicans want to do now is to stop progress by any procedural means necessary. South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint Tweeted that the goal was to slow down debate:
Judd Gregg of New Hampshire put together a how-to guide for slowing down debate. And speaking to the New York Times, one Republican aide said, “This throws the schedule off considerably.” What it does is show how the Republicans govern by trying to stifle progress.
