Nancy's nutty new rules

NY Post ^ | March 10, 2010 | March 10, 2010

[Scanian]

The next act in the drive to pass ObamaCare is the mother-of-all political maneuvers -- in which Democrats will use an incredibly convoluted and possibly unconstitutional process.

Things were already arcane: President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have been threatening to enact "health-care reform" through the narrow path of budget reconciliation. It's a ploy to allow the Senate to pass "reform" with just 51 votes -- making the election of Scott Brown as the 41st senator against ObamaCare irrelevant.

To use reconciliation, Pelosi must first get House members to vote for the exact bill the Senate passed in December. That is, the House would "keep the process moving" so both the House and Senate could pass a second bill to fix things members don't like in the Senate measure.

But the speaker is having trouble rounding up the 216 votes she needs to get the Senate bill through the House.

[Pontiac]

The next act in the drive to pass ObamaCare is the mother-of-all political maneuvers -- in which Democrats will use an incredibly convoluted and possibly unconstitutional process.

An unconstitutional process to pass an unconstitutional bill.

But then the constitution has been pretty much a speed bump for our congress since the 1930’s.

Now with this congress the Constitution has become less than a rumble strip.

[ATX 1985]

From what I heard on the All Star Panel from Fox New’s Special Report, this process is totally backward and the House Democrats are going to have to put their trust in the Senate to add anti-abortion measures in the Senate version of the bill that they want to vote on in Reconciliation. It really is confusing, and that cannot be good for the American people. Obama says that we deserve an up or down vote on health care, what we deserve is a transparent process to deal with an issue that affects all Americans.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Look here! There's an ad waiting to be born. 2 seconds

[sirchtruth]

This is such B.S. Why are Obama and dems waiting? If they want HC so bad, just enact it and pay the consequences later it's there quintessential MO. However, I doubt they actually have the votes.

If they do pass this crap and the republicans sweep in Nov, they better rescind every last word of the POS. If they do not there will be NO other alternative then but to finally go third party.

I dare republicans not the destroy this thing after 2010 if they win sufficiently.

[Upstate NY Guy]

Then Blue Dogs may soon learn the only thing getting fixed is them,

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

Nutty Nancy’s nutty new rules ...

[Haiku Guy]

I went to the authoritative source...

Schoolhouse Rock: How a Bill Becomes a Law

Don't see anything about simultaneous passage of reconciliations and fixes, here...

[arthurus]

Why do they need 51 votes in the Senate? Why do they need any votes in the Senate at all? The Senate has already passed the thing. If the House passes what the Senate has already passed then it goes straight to the President for signature. Then there will be no need for "reconciliation" or anything else. It will be a done deal. Reconciliation id just a trinket offered to the so-called conservative Social Democrats to allow them to vote for the thing and be able to tell their constituents,"well they promised..."

Why are we even discussing "reconciliation?"

[Upstate NY Guy]

The article does a pretty good job in detailing just how unlikely (or impossible) reconciliation is. The Dem Blue Dogs and their constituents need to be made aware of this. It’s a complete con job and as you know nothing will get passed in the Senate. Obama simply signs the Senate bill and it’s law. Kiss your freedoms goodbye.

[ThunderSleeps]

The Democrats (and Republicans) need to realize something. All of the Representatives and about 1/3 of the Senate are up for re-election in a few months. No-one is “safe” if they vote for this un-popular, un-American, expensive, socialist and fascist expansion of government. No one. Every single seat that votes “yes” will quite probably be voted out. I personally think that is exactly the kind of message we Americans need to send to DC: you work for us. You do things stupid and harmful to us, and you are out.