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

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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.