This article is based on two sources--the Washington Examiner yesterday and the New York Post yesterday. The Washington Examiner reported that House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter has come up with a plan to get the healthcare reform bill through Congress. Any resemblance between her plan and the U.S. Constitution or the rules of the House or Senate is purely coincidental. According to the National Journal's Congress Daily:
"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."
This is amazing. The reason for this, however, is very simple. On December 16th rightwinggranny.com ran a story about Nancy Pelosi saying that the House Democrats would not be voting on controversial bills unless the Senate voted first. This makes sense. The entire House is up for re-election every two years. Only one third of the Senate is up for re-election every two years. It is very unusual for major legislation to be passed in an election year--and the healthcare legislation is not popular.
If this bill is passed in the House as is, Democrats running for office can expect to be reminded of Medicare cuts, Cornhusker kickback, Louisiana Purchase, etc. That's why they don't want to go on record as voting for the Senate bill as is.
The New York Post concludes:
"So now Democratic leaders say they'll package a two-for-one vote: Moving the original Senate bill simultaneously with a "reconciliation" bill -- thus, if the House votes for the bill of fixes, the main Senate bill will be deemed to also have passed. Then the reconciliation bill will go back to the Senate, where it only needs 50 votes (plus Vice President Joe Biden's) to pass.
"Hmm. Nowhere in the US Constitution does it say that Congress can deem a bill to have passed. Pelosi & Co. aren't just making up policy as they go, but also procedure -- possibly unconstitutional procedure, at that. All to enact a bill remaking a sixth of the US economy over the 3-1 opposition of the American people."
This is going to be fun to watch.
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