Russell Berman at The Atlantic:
When Democrats reshaped the American health-insurance system in 2010, Republicans accused them of all manner of legislative foul play: Middle-of-the-night votes. Backroom deals. An enormous, partisan bill jammed through Congress before anyone could find out what was in it. “Have you read the bill? Hell no you haven’t!” an indignant then-House Minority Leader John Boehner thundered on the House floor.
The GOP’s claims were exaggerated. But as Republicans rushed President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” through the House this week, they committed just about every procedural misdeed they had ascribed to Democrats back then—and more. The final text of an 1,100-page bill that Speaker Mike Johnson described as “the most consequential legislation that any party has ever passed” became public just hours before Republicans approved it on a party-line vote. They scheduled a pivotal hearing to begin at 1 a.m. and waived their own rules meant to give lawmakers at least three days to review legislation before a vote. One Republican even missed the climactic roll call because, the speaker explained, he fell asleep.
Berman notes that most House Republicans have no firsthand experience of the Obamacare vote:
Just 27 members of the GOP conference were serving in the House at the time. “I wasn’t there. I ain’t that old,” the 66-year-old Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona told me. He joined Congress in 2017 and was a state legislator in 2010. We were speaking on Tuesday, when the GOP bill was still in flux, and Biggs, a conservative, was still on the fence. “I always tell the speaker, if I don’t have time to read the bill, I’m probably a no,” Biggs said. Evidently, Biggs is a fast reader. When the House voted on the megabill less than 48 hours later—and about 10 hours after its final text was released—Biggs was a yes.