Why do people keep using this quote so dishonestly? It is painfully clear that she is not saying what people who use it that way
want it to mean.
Actual full Pelosi quote:
Imagine an economy where people could follow their aspirations, where they could be entrepreneurial, where they could take risks professionally because personally their families [sic] health care needs are being met. Where they could be self-employed or start a business, not be job-locked in a job because they have health care there, and if they went out on their own it would be unaffordable to them, but especially true, if someone has a child with a pre-existing condition. So when we pass our bill, never again will people be denied coverage because they have a pre-existing condition. We have to do this in partnership, and I wanted to bring [you] up to date on where we see it from here. The final health care legislation that will soon be passed by Congress will deliver successful reform at the local level. It will offer paid for investments that will improve health care services and coverage for millions more Americans. It will make significant investments in innovation, prevention, wellness and offer robust support for public health infrastructure. It will dramatically expand investments into community health centers. That means a dramatic expansion in the number of patients community health centers can see and ultimately healthier communities. Our bill will significantly reduce uncompensated care for hospitals. You’ve heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention–it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting. But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.
FACT CHECK: Did Nancy Pelosi Say Obamacare Must be Passed to 'Find Out What Is in It'?
Nevermind that there were many many debates over multiple months on Obamacare. It was not "rammed through" as in
sped through. It was ultimately passed via reconciliation, but got tons of debate, unlike this GOP tax proposal, which really was rushed. The only debate was with the few holdout GOPers who wanted more pork inserted at the last minute (literally).
The Dems did bring the GOP in on Obamacare and incorporated a ton of amendments the GOP wanted; the GOP turned around and voted no anyway. The GOP didn't bring in the Dems here.
An honest complaint would be to complain about reconciliation being used this way, but then one would have to condemn the GOP's tax bill just as harshly. Of course, that's not what's going on here....
What's going on here is people defending the GOP's behavior in lying about how Obamacare was passed, then turning around and doing what they falsely accused the Dems of having done.
