“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explained Obamacare to the National Association of Counties’ 2010 legislative conference. It’s a line often quoted by conservative pundits attacking President Obama’s landmark health care legislation. It’s also one of the most misinterpreted quotes in modern politics.
Pelosi’s full quote actually advocates for reading the bill “away from the fog of the controversy” surrounding it. Fast forward to last Thursday, when multiple Republican Representatives who voted for the GOP’s American Health Care Act admitted that they hadn’t read it before voting.
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