Posted on 03/11/2010 1:03:57 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Did the Senate Parliamentarian Just Kill Obamacare? BY John McCormack March 11, 2010 3:39 PM
This is big, big news (if true):
The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that President Barack Obama must sign Congress’ original health care reform bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package, senior GOP sources said Thursday.
The Senate Parliamentarian’s Office was responding to questions posed by the Republican leadership. The answers were provided verbally, sources said.
House Democratic leaders have been searching for a way to ensure that any move they make to approve the Senate-passed $871 billion health care reform bill is followed by Senate action on a reconciliation package of adjustments to the original bill. One idea is to have the House and Senate act on reconciliation prior to House action on the Senate’s original health care bill.
Information Republicans say they have received from the Senate Parliamentarian’s Office eliminates that option. House Democratic leaders last week began looking at crafting a legislative rule that would allow the House to approve the Senate health care bill, but not forward it to Obama for his signature until the Senate clears the reconciliation package.
House Democrats do not trust the Senate; they do not want to pass the Senate bill--with all the special deals in it--and hope the Senate will fix these problems and others later. Even Democrat Michael Capuano of Massachusetts is expressing very grave concerns about passing the Senate bill unamended.
If this report is true, the parliamentarian's ruling seems to nix the "Slaughter Solution," whereby the House would deem the Senate bill passed only after the reconciliation bill is passed by both the House and the Senate.
So where do Democrats go from here? One possibility is that Harry Reid will fire the Senate parliamentarian.
If Democrats really think they can get away with such a heavy-handed move in the first place, they might as well replace the parliamentarian with Rahm Emanuel and kill two birds with one stone.
Can Joe Biden overrule this?
Do you suppose Karl Rove or Newt Gingrich (Dick Morris)? will be on tonight to explain it? They can usually put things in a way that is easier to understand (IMHO)...
Anything on the news about this yet??
Yes but his ruling can be overturned by a Senate vote. Also, Biden overturning this decision goes against the tradition of how the Senate is run but these days that might not count for much.
I don’t care how bad a RINO Scott Brown is for the rest of his term, he’s got my vote...
Good for the Parliamentarian...these people are evil criminals.
No it’s not.
He will sign it.
They will never get around to reconciling it.
Remember there’s a deficit of trust for a good reason...
I wouldn't put it past him.
I don’t wish Robert Byrd any ill but wouldn’t it cap off his career and this Health Care round if he fell over dead on the Senate floor defending Senate rules.
“One possibility is that Harry Reid will fire the Senate parliamentarian.”
OR, they could send him to Arkansas and have the Clintons’ pals take care of him.
If we could put that older than dirt fellow on Obamacare, this mess would be over by Friday afternoon. ;>)
Did the Senate Parliamentarian Just Kill Obamacare?
This week’s version...
Nah...the democRATS will just ignore rules and decorum and protocol. They believe “all means justify the end”.
This ought to stop them for about 5 minutes. They’ll do it any way they can, and damn the rules or the consequences. The only question is whether they still have enough support even for that.
As Steyn and others have pointed out, if they manage to ram healthcare through, it will be a game changer, and the left will profit immensely in the long run.
But in the short run, these guys are going to lose their jobs, and it’s not clear how many will be willing to do that. Or will Obama just buy them all off?
Fun to watch the Obama machine screw away their 2nd year, on this issue.
Possessing better political instincts, the Clintons dropped it once it went bad.
Yes.
I thought biden (pres of the senate) could overrule anything he did or said too.
Or they could have a virtual reconciliation bill, sort of like a virtual fence at the border that doesn't stop anyone. Obama can just pretend it passed and direct his czars to start enforcing it.
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