GOP Medicare bill passes

Here's my favorite paragraphs from the article about it:

But Democrats asserted that Republican leaders were pushing through a bad bill in the middle of the night. The measure, they said, was laden with giveaways to insurers and drug companies and would shortchange the elderly people it was supposed to help.

Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, said: ``If this bill is passed, it would be a dagger in the heart of Medicare as we know it. This bill is a backdoor attempt by the Republican Party to privatize Medicare.''

[snip]

But conservatives were restless, and Democrats were furious that the legislation, written in closed-door meetings without Democrat representation from the House, was being pushed through that chamber with little debate, just a day after the text was made public.

Keep in mind that the text of this bill was 678 pages in length, and nobody can possibly read that nd be able to debate it in the time after the bill was released and subsequently passed.

Welcome to "democracy", GOP-style.

In happier news, Senate Republicans can't get past a Democrat filibuster of their energy bill. This is another bill written behind closed doors.. By CHeney and the energy corporations.