Congressional Democrats have become so desperate in their attempt to pass the Senate Obamacare bill that they are contemplating what may well be unconstitutional maneuvers. Specifically, they are trying to pass the Senate bill WITHOUT having a vote in the House.
Mark Tapscott reports in The Washington Examiner:
Would House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow House Democratic leaders try to cram the Senate version of Obamacare through the House without actually having a recorded vote on the bill?
Not only is the answer yes, they would, they have figured out a way to do it, according to National Journal’s Congress Daily:
“House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.
“Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.
“Slaughter has not taken the plan to Speaker Pelosi as Democrats await CBO scores on the corrections bill. ‘Once the CBO gives us the score, we’ll spring right on it,’ she said.”
Each bill that comes before the House for a vote on final passage must be given a rule that determines things like whether the minority would be able to offer amendments to it from the floor.
In the Slaughter Solution, the rule would declare that the House “deems” the Senate version of Obamacare to have been passed by the House. House members would still have to vote on whether to accept the rule, but they would then be able to say they only voted for a rule, not for the bill itself.
Newt Gingrich commented on Twitter: “Incredible. We’ve gone from passing bills without reading them to passing bills without voting on them”
The problem Democrats have is that they do not have the votes to pass the Senate bill in the House and that House Democrats do not trust their colleagues in the Senate that they will actually proceed on promises to make changes once the House has adopted the Senate bill. The Senate bill cannot be changed since it takes sixty votes to pass a new bill in the Senate and Democrats lost their 60th vote with the election of Senator Scott Brown from Massachusetts.
Now HotAir reports that the Senate parliamentarian has ruled that the House must pass and President Barack Obama must sign the Senate’s bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package.
Does this kill the Slaughter solution? It seems like it should since the President must sign the Senate bill passed by both branches of Congress before the subsequent correction bill can be passed. But who knows. Democrats are trying to twist arcane rules to so that they can pass Obamacare and their members can deny having voted for it. The most effective antidote to this deception is relentless exposure of what they are trying to do so that Democrats will know now that voters will not fall for their lie in the November election.
There is still the possibility that Speaker Nancy Pelosi will get the votes through arm twisting and backroom deals. It is clear that she doesn’t have the votes now. Otherwise, the vote would already have taken place. However, it is certainly not impossible that enough Congressional prostitutes can be bought if the price is right. If your brother gets a lifetime high-level judicial appointment, maybe ending your Congressional career is worth it.
The next few weeks are critical to the future of the United States. As previously reported on Florida Pundit, the reason the Left is so fanatic about passing this bill is because it irreversibly expands the size of government to the point where America will look more like a European welfare state where it doesn’t matter if conservatives occasionally gain power because the leftist government apparatus has become so large that it cannot be rolled back.
If a vote on Obamacare can be delayed long enough and the November election comes closer, some House Democrat members’ survival instinct are likely to kick in preventing the from voting for the bill. Unless the Republicans commit colossal blunders between now and the election, the Left will not have the power to pass Obamacare after the election.
{ 1 comment }
