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We Have to Pass the Bill So You Can Find Out What to Regret

Plus: The CBO’s straight talk gets all the hate on Capitol Hill

Joe Perticone's avatar
Joe Perticone
Jun 05, 2025
∙ Paid
Composite / Getty Images

I was elected to lead, not to read

“We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it,” then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously said while Democrats were negotiating the Affordable Care Act.1

Republicans feasted off that quote for years, arguing that it showed how rushed and thoughtless the process was behind Barack Obama’s signature legislation. A decade-plus later, they’re now adopting that very same approach while forcefully pushing their “big, beautiful bill” through the Congress.

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