House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) doesn’t have the votes to pass the Senate health care bill in the House, so she’s instructed Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), chair of the House Rules Committee, to be creative to circumvent the legislative process we know very well — voting. Yes, the wuss Democrats are afraid of being accountable and actually taking a stand on the issue of ObamaCare. Last year members of Congress were criticized for not reading a bill before voting on it, but now they want to top that by not reading and not voting.
In a desperate move to abide by President Obama’s unrealistic deadline and totally ignore constituents, the Democrats are positioning to pass ObamaCare with the “self-executing rule”:
So at the Speaker’s command, New York Democrat Louise Slaughter, who chairs the House Rules Committee, may insert what’s known as a “self-executing rule,” also known as a “hereby rule.” Under this amazing procedural ruse, the House would then vote only once on the reconciliation corrections, but not on the underlying Senate bill. If those reconciliation corrections pass, the self-executing rule would say that the Senate bill is presumptively approved by the House—even without a formal up-or-down vote on the actual words of the Senate bill.
Democrats would thus send the Senate bill to President Obama for his signature even as they claimed to oppose the same Senate bill. They would be declaring themselves to be for and against the Senate bill in the same vote. Even John Kerry never went that far with his Iraq war machinations. As we went to press, the precise mechanics that Democrats will use remained unclear, though yesterday Mrs. Pelosi endorsed this “deem and pass” strategy in a meeting with left-wing bloggers.
The combined use of reconciliation and “deem and pass” is unprecedented. Don’t let anyone fool you:
Yes, self-executing rules have been used in the past, but as the Congressional Research Service put it in a 2006 paper, “Originally, this type of rule was used to expedite House action in disposing of Senate amendments to House-passed bills.” They’ve also been used for amendments such as to a 1998 bill that “would have permitted the CIA to offer employees an early-out retirement program”—but never before to elide a vote on the entire fundamental legislation.
Pelosi and her peers are clearly abusing their majority powers. What they are doing is exactly what our Founding Fathers were afraid of: mob rule. America wasn’t borne a democracy, America was established as a republic. Democracy means the majority takes charge no matter what, but a republic assures that the minority’s interests are considered. The Founding Fathers in determining our form of government took that into account and that’s why we have the Constitution, separation of powers, and balance and checks. The Democrats are attempting something that’ll have a detrimental effect in the legislature. If you think Congress’ approval rating is low right now, wait until the try this “deem and pass” maneuver.
