Nearing the finish line of the health care marathon in the Senate Finance Committee during the wee hours on Friday morning , Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.V.) sponsored the “wrap-up amendment” that stealthily gutted important Republican amendments to the “conceptual draft” of a bill that were agreed to or voted through in committee. This wrap-up amendment passed 13-10 on a straight party line vote, allowing Democrats to vote favorably on some high-profile issues, only to pull them back substantially under the cover of darkness in the wrap-up.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking Republican on the Finance Committee voiced strong concerns over this last-minute maneuvering to eviscerate protections for seniors, veterans and the shrinking number of folks who still have a job in the days of Obamanomics...