MCCAIN: I haven't even seen the secret healthcare bill, but 'I'm sure the Russians have been able to hack in'
Alexei Nikolsky/Pool Photo via AP
Sen. John McCain appears somewhat fed up by the process being used to draft the Senate Republican healthcare bill.
When asked by Bloomberg's Laura Litvan on Tuesday if he had seen the bill, McCain was blunt.
"No, nor have I met any American that has," McCain said. "I'm sure the Russians have been able to hack in and gotten most of it."
While McCain may be have expressed his sentiments most colorfully, many Republican senators have expressed frustration with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's tactics for drafting the bill.
McConnell told reporters Tuesday that a draft version of the bill would be released Thursday, but so far few members on either side of the aisle have seen any text of the massive legislation.
That has led to outrage among Democrats and bristling from Republicans. Moderate Sen. Susan Collins, a key swing vote for the bill, also told Bloomberg she had not seen the bill and said the short timeframe would give her little time to analyze it.
"I’m very eager to see the language," Collins said. "I don't think it gives enough time to thoroughly analyze the bill, but we’ll see when it comes out."
Sen. Mike Lee, a conservative member of the working group involved in the bill's creation, said in a Facebook video Tuesday that even he hasn't seen the legislation.
"Even though I've been a member of this working group assigned to help narrow some of the focus of this, I haven't seen the bill," Lee said. "It has become increasingly apparent over the past few days that even though we thought we were going to be in charge of writing this bill within this working group, it's not being written by us."
Lee went on to say the bill is being written by a group of staffers in leadership and he is "frustrated" by the lack of transparency.
With Republicans holding a slim, two-seat majority in the Senate, many policy analysts have suggested it would only take a few members to come out and say they won't vote for the bill to encourage a more open process.
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