--- title: Senate Health Care Bill: How 'The Office' Explains It description: A TV critic thinks the fight over the Senate health care bill sounds familiar: Specifically, an old episode of "The Office." canonical: https://time.com/4838970/the-office-senate-healthcare-bill-trump/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-29T15:16:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:21:00.476Z og:title: How an Episode of 'The Office' Explains the Senate Health Care Bill og:description: "Michael, he made huge cuts" og:url: https://time.com/4838970/the-office-senate-healthcare-bill-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73da5562f3fc347c/6988cac02dce0101159ed338/michael-scott.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: The Office og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How an Episode of 'The Office' Explains the Senate Health Care Bill twitter:description: "Michael, he made huge cuts" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73da5562f3fc347c/6988cac02dce0101159ed338/michael-scott.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How an Old Episode of 'The Office' Explains the Senate Health Care Bill > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=91702d8d-289f-471d-a53e-f0c97034b098&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Senate Delays Health Care Vote Due to Lack of Support [Watch (HLS stream): Senate Delays Health Care Vote Due to Lack of Support](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Rpfj2V8o.m3u8) (0:44)  _Published 2017-06-27. The Senate will push off a vote on its health care bill until after the July 4 recess, amid mounting signs of trouble for the Obamacare repeal effort, according to senior lawmakers._ by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jun 29, 2017 3:16 PM UTC The Senate will push off a vote on its health care bill until after the July 4 recess, amid mounting signs of trouble for the Obamacare repeal effort, according to senior lawmakers. by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jun 29, 2017 3:16 PM UTC A TV critic thinks the [fight](http://time.com/4836700/senate-health-care-bill-poll-disapproval/) over the [Senate health care bill](http://time.com/4835301/senate-health-care-vote-delay-donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell/) sounds familiar: Specifically, an old episode of “The Office.” In a tweet storm on Wednesday, friend of TIME (and former colleague) James Poniewozik, now with the New York _Times_, compared the current fight over repealing the Affordable Care Act to the [“Health Care”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health%5FCare%5F%28The%5FOffice%29) episode from the NBC sitcom’s first season. (He gave credit to a Politico writer who [had a similar idea](https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/845109727898091522) months ago.) In the episode, boss Michael Scott is charged with choosing a new health care plan, realizes that means he’ll have to cut employee benefits and decides to try to shift the blame. Here’s how it played out. > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880248629642108928) And his big ideas. > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880248825457377282) Then the inevitable reality check. > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880249115900358656) And the realization that leading can be tough stuff. Who knew? > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880249362936475654) So why not delegate? > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880249557069770752) The backlash. > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880249879204945921) The cuts. > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880250169106862081) The bottomless need for adoration. > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880250455376498688) Another promise kept. > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880250677922078720) But some people didn’t buy what he was selling. > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880250838614147073) Suspense over. > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880251091522342912) > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880251433244909568) Time for the receipts. > [](https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/880251630582726657) This isn’t the first time people have drawn parallels from the White House to [_The Office_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x1eqZNyJjM). ## Transcript [00:00] As I think you may have already heard, we are going to [00:02] continue the discussions within our conference on the [00:05] differences that we have, that we will continue to trial [00:08] litigate. Consequently, we will not on [00:12] the bill this week, but we are still working towards [00:17] getting at least 50 people in a comfortable place. [00:20] We're going down to the White House at 4 o' clock, the [00:24] president invited us to come down and the White [00:26] House has been very much involved in these [00:28] discussions. They're very anxious to help and we [00:32] appreciate the invitation and I hope all of our members [00:34] will head down. I think that will likely be the case. Will [00:36] your ongoing discussion involve democrats at all? 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