I have been asked by a few readers about the legality of the self executing rule Democrats may use to pass healthcare. I am no lawyer, nor am I an expert in congressional procedure. However, I know someone that is an expert on procedure; Washington correspondent Jamie Dupree whose blog I refer to often.
Dupree writes that the procedure was, according to his Democratic sources, put into place in 1933 and has been used by both parties quite a few times since then. The link below contains a list of legislation passed in this manner. I would summarize further, but folks, this is far too big and dangerous for summary. I encourage you to go to Jamie Dupree’s blog.
When this debate is all over, and healthcare is passed, I encourage opponents to remember how this was done and not allow it to be used for legislation you support. This may be legal, but like the fine print in a credit card agreement that Democrats want to fight (justifiably) this is dishonest at best. Overhauling the U.S. political and economic system by underhanded trick is wrong and vile.
We must use the Constitution and the ballot box to fight back or we can not ourselves point to our Constitution as a higher law. And we must point to our Constitution if we are to return the Constitution to its place at the top of our system. We must not sink to the tricks being used to pass this bill.
Someone must stand for rule of law.
{ 6 comments }
Robert
I read this in the US Constitution. Seems pretty clear when one is a strict Constitutionalist…or merely possessing the ability to read..
Section 7
All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives;
but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.
Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate,
shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United
States
We don’t care what’s in the Constitution…Only what will continue the making the bloated government even bigger and more bloated.
We want an enlightened government-run health care system like in workers paradise of Europe.
The cost doesn’t matter as long as it’s free.
We want all the rich people to pay big taxes so we can keep our IPhones, cable internet package, the leased Prius or now a leased VOLT from GM, dinners out in upscale hotspots, and our list of goodies we can’t do without goes on and on.
Hey, this stuff is ALL necessities now.
But as a concession we all gave up our landlines.BooHoo…
Remember who won the election..
Case closed.
The classic bait and switch tactic. Pretend to get rid of the contentious issues that were put in to buy votes (Louisiana Purchase, Nebraska Kickback, etc.) and then say that gee whiz,,,,we must’ve made a mistake, let’s do a little trim from the beast and declare everything’s OK.
The number of uninsureds don’t add up. Last year it was 45 million, then 52 million, then 35 million, now 31 million. More moving targets. I wonder if the huge drop has to do with illegal immigrants (oops, i meant to say “undocumented immigrants). If so, then why aren’t the numbers run on this thing with an adjusted number of uninsureds (hmmm$1.5 trillion too much to swallow).
All cost containment measures have not and will likely not be explored. Makes me want to scream at this bunch of criminals.
I didn’t have much use for this Congress…..3 years of Democratic control thus far has seen huge increases in spending. (The Republicans aren’t exactly squeeky clean here….but come on).
Nothing but a bunch of bastages.
I believe if the Dems do this, the Supreme Court will strike the bill down in FLAMES!!!! In 1998, they ruled that bill with exact language MUST be voted by both houses and then sent to the President for signature according to Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution. And this was from the Liberal Justice Stevens! The current argument the Dems are using is the Republicans did it, so it’s okay. It’s not okay. The Supreme Court has actually said over and over again, just because someone else got away with an unconstitutional act doesn’t mean YOU will. All it takes is one challenge to break the chain!
So you (the dems) won. So what? Just because you won doesn’t mean that you have to act like a schoolyard kid who just got chosen to pick the teams for dodgeball. You reap what you sow. So, since you chose to play ugly, get ready for our (the repubs) retaliation when we next get into a majority position. The big difference then will be that the majority of the citizenry will be on our side… an fully behind us. Not like now, when most Americans are AGAINST what you want to do.
If the Democrats resort to this procedural vote–and they’re trying not to have to–it is because of cynical demagogery and gimmicks used on both sides. First, The Senate bill wouldn’t have so many problems if the Republicans had allowed the simple up-or-down vote house republicans seem to want so much now. Next, Democrats may use the procedural measure so they don’t have to go on record as supporting measures in the Senate bill that they don’t, in fact, support and are planning to change through the reconciliation process. Nevertheless, they’ll be bludgoned with the votes for the Louisiana Purchase etc. come campaign time no matter how hard they work to make sure these provisions don’t make it into the final bill. If the Republicans wanted to prevent some of these bad provisions, they could agree not to filibuster in the Senate so a better bill could be passed–all they’d have to do is nothing. They won’t, because they’d rather see these stinkers passed so they can campaign against them. There is plenty of cynicism to go around and not enough concern for the health and welfare of us citizens.