Hartford Courant: Why The Secrecy On Health Care Negotiations?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 — BLACKOUT – Contrary to Obama promise, final bargaining is behind closed doors
When he was a candidate for president, Barack Obama promised reform of the nation’s health care system and said it would be an open book.
Unlike the secrecy surrounding the proposed Clinton reforms of 1993, negotiations would be on television — specifically, “on C-SPAN,” the candidate said over and over again on the campaign trail.
Apparently, Democratic congressional leaders weren’t listening, because they’ve buttoned up the bargaining over the House and Senate versions of health care reforms. Reconciliation talks will take place away from the camera’s eye and the reporter’s notepad.
Mr. Obama should ask House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to throw open the doors and let in the news media. The public should be able to monitor the bargaining between House and Senate members that will determine the final shape of one of the most important pieces of legislation to emerge in decades.
C-SPAN has asked congressional leaders to “allow the public full access through television” to the talks.
It’s true that Congress — under Republican as well as Democratic control — has reconciled other major legislation in private. It’s also true that C-SPAN has already televised hundreds of hours of committee hearings, mark-up proceedings and floor debate on these very bills.
All the more reason, then, that final deliberations and changes to this historic reform be done in public.