</p>You might have seen this week <ahref="http://www.breitbart.tv/nancy-pelosi-we-need-to-pass-health-care-bill-to-find-out-whats-in-it/">a stunning demonstration of political condescension on the health care front. In remarks at the 2010 Legislative Conference for the National Association of Counties, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of controversy.
This revealing comment reinforces a patriarchal (or in Pelosis case matriarchal) attitude Congress has taken with the American public: What lurks within the House and Senate health care bills will be revealed in the fullness of time, and its really good for us if we only knew better.<spanid="more-28508"></span>
Ordinary Americans have had a common-sense resistance to Washingtons feverish attempt to overhaul one-sixth of the U.S. economy. But Congressional leadership has ignored the publics concerns and instead clung to the idea that if they simply ram the bill through the legislative process using <ahref="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/health/policy/10health.html?ref=politics">unprecedented tactical maneuvers that may not even pass the parliamentarians smell testAmericans will finally understand and embrace ObamaCare.
When its law, then Americans can finally grasp the goodness of whats in the <ahref="http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/key-documents/the-house-and-senate-bills/">2,700-plus-page Senate bill, which is the most likely legislative vehicle that Congress will push to President Barack Obamas desk. The problem for Pelosi and congressional Democrats is that Americans have been reading these bills, and they dont like what theyre reading.
The more the public learns about <ahref="http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/bg2350.cfm">the taxes, <ahref="http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/cda1002.cfm">individual mandates, <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/14/more-taxpayer-funding-of-abortion-in-the-senate-health-bill/">taxpayer-funded abortion coverage, and <ahref="http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm2774.cfm">the potential breakdown of the private health insurance market, the less jazzed they are about ObamaCare. But politicians have blithely waved away little details <ahref="http://www.cnsnews.com/news/print/51610">like reading the actual bill and instead said trust usat a time when public trust for Congress is at <ahref="http://dailycaller.com/2010/03/10/ap-gfk-poll-obama-more-popular-than-congress/">an all-time low during Obamas presidency.
This whole dynamic helps explain why Obama and congressional leadership are insistent on <ahref="http://blog.heritage.org/2010/03/09/deja-vu-all-over-again/">another artificial deadline of March 18 for final passage of ObamaCare. They know that members of Congress, particularly those in the House, could see another wave of townhall protests when they go on a two-week recess starting March 26. Thats because the American people do know whats in these bills. Popular discussion and debatethat fog of controversyhas helped to enlighten them.