Most of us felt it was impossible. After decades of listening to Nancy Pelosi spew mindless, inane, gobbledygook, we assumed there was no longer any way for her to one-up herself. Considering the level of asinine rhetoric we've come to expect from the former Speaker, we thought the worst was behind us. We believed we'd seen it all. We were wrong.
On Friday night, we achieved maximum Pelosi.
The following letter, sent from Pelosi to Paul Ryan, is so deeply out of touch with reality - so utterly free of anything even remotely resembling self-awareness - that it's set a new bar for political hubris, stupidity, and craven pandering.
Dear Speaker Ryan,
This week, the Committees on Energy & Commerce and Ways & Means will be marking up Republicans’ long-feared bill to dismantle affordable health care. The GOP legislation will have life or death consequences for tens of millions of families across America, and extraordinary impacts on state and federal budgets long into the future.
The American people and Members have a right to know the full impact of this legislation before any vote in Committee or by the whole House.
Members must not be asked to vote on this legislation before the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation have answered the following questions about your legislation in 2018 and 2019, over the 10-year budget window, and in the decade after: How will this bill measure up to the Affordable Care Act and current Medicaid law on coverage, quality, and cost? And how will it impact Medicare solvency?
Nancy Pelosi has been in Congress since 1987. That's thirty years. Given the length of her tenure, you might assume it would be easy to outline her many, many, achievements and produce examples of her stirring oratory. Again, your assumption would be incorrect.
Most people would have to admit that, in the three decades of service, this was her most memorable moment:
Pelosi: we have to pass the health care bill so that you can find out what is in it
Pelosi's grasp on power are all built upon a foundation of obfuscation, hidden agenda, and buried truth
Try to imagine the level of mendacity it takes for this woman to even dare entertain the notion of saying "The American people and Members have a right to know the full impact of this legislation before any vote in Committee or by the whole House."
Pelosi's public life, lack of incarceration, passage of ObamaCare, and her continued (if increasingly fragile) grasp on power are all built upon a foundation of obfuscation, hidden agenda, and buried truth. The idea that Nancy Pelosi - the woman who spearheaded a "signature law" that passed thanks to the "ignorance of the American voter" - would preach to us about transparency?
THAT is maximum Pelosi.
