The GOP’s battle to make good on a campaign promise to repeal and replace The Affordable Care Act –better known and Obamacare– continues to confound Republican lawmaker after Republican lawmaker. There is a lot of political ‘inside baseball” going when it comes to passing legislation through the House and Congress and it can give headaches to first year members of the new Congress as well as the old bulls that have been reelected for generations.
The latest lawmaker to relearn this lesson, according to a Politico report, appears to be none-other than Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky. According to various accounts, Sen. Paul attempted to obtain (unsuccessfully) a copy of the of a version of the repeal bill proposed by House Republicans.
The report claims Pauls’ actions Thursday were seen by some unnamed folks as “an escalation of his opposition to the [Republican] party’s healthcare plans.”
The basis for the claims appear to come, at least in part, from a report that Sen. Paul was storming around Capitol offices, claiming “he was told he could not remove the [House GOP] bill and make it public. Paul also called an impromptu press conference Thursday were reporters described him lobbing complaints, very publicly, about a lack of transparency among some in his party. He was also overseen having an exchange with a staffer and he was quoted by reporters afterwards as saying:
“I [Paul] said I liked to get a copy and they said no go. She wouldn’t tell us anything really. Even if I were allowed to look at it, which it didn’t look like I was, how is that democracy?”
LawNewz reached out to Sen. Paul’s press office and other Capitol Hill staff familiar with the situation in an effort to obtain their version of events, but our messages were not retuned by press time. We will update this story according if we receive any replies.
3:10 Update:
An unnamed congressional source tells LawNewz, “These dumb stunts aimed at going viral are why [Sen.Paul’s] presidential campaign was such a spectacular failure.”
[image via screengrab]