Posted on 03/20/2010 10:29:14 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
At the House Rules Committee meeting, Democrats desperate to pass their national health care plan are running into the barrier of basic civics. Here is the problem: The Senate has passed its HCR bill. If the House passes the same bill, it goes on to the president; once he signs it, the bill becomes law. But House Democrats, when they vote for the Senate bill using the "Deem & Pass" dodge, also want to simultaneously pass a package of amendments to the law. Except HCR will not, at that point, be law. It will only become law when the president signs it. Congress can amend the law -- it does so all the time -- but can it amend something that isn't law?
Which is where Democrats are tripping up. Passage of their HCR proposal should be very simple: Senate passes it, House passes it, president signs it. But House Democrats are terrified of voting for the unpopular bill, so they hope to pass it by "Deem & Pass," in which they will vote, not for the bill, but for a rule that both deems the Senate bill to have passed and, in the same vote, passes the package of amendments. So House Democrats will have two fig leaves: 1) they didn't vote directly for the Senate bill, and 2) they voted to simultaneously amend -- to "fix" -- the Senate bill.
The problem is the sequence. Can the House vote to amend something that isn't the law, as the Senate bill will not be law before the president's signature? The Rules Committee meeting turned into mass confusion when Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman said, "We're not going to 'deem' the bill passed. We're going to pass the Senate bill…I would be against the idea of 'deeming' something -- we either pass it or we don't."
To Republican ears, that sounded as if Waxman was speaking out in support of a direct vote on the Senate plan. "I hope we're making news here," said Republican Rep. Joe Barton. If so, Barton added, "Praise the Lord!" Other Democrats jumped in to say that no, there would not be a direct vote on the Senate bill.
Barton then asked whether there would be some period of time between House passage of the Senate bill and House passage of the HCR amendments. During that period of time, the president would sign the Senate HCR bill into law. For the House to amend the HCR law, Barton said, it has to be law, which means the president has to have signed it. "If he doesn't, it ain't a law," Barton said.
Democratic Rep. Sander Levin jumped in. "We're going to be amending the law," he claimed. Waxman added, "We change current law, and the current law will be the Senate bill once it's voted on in the House."
But it won't be law until the president signs it. Obviously, Democrats are performing such strange contortions because many of their members are scared of voting for a bill that will likely mean defeat for them in November. But their attempts to avoid responsibility have created some very basic problems.
conspicuous by her absence, Michelle Bachmann
I take option 2.
OK..I am listening to CSPAN - fascinating! I don’t know how to count - like I am still not sure that 2X2 is 4 but I think I can understand something: If we pay for 4 years taxes and stuffs and the program does not start before these 4 years which are then supposed to pay for the next 6 years of service - so what happen the next 10 years??? Do they stop the program for 4 years again so they can pay for the next 6 years? Or...if I understand correctly, then a full 10 years CANNOT pay for itself so we are all dead? Again, I am very bad in math but that’s what I come up with. How can they answer to that???
At least OBL isn’t trying to pull the wool over our eyes. He is honest in what he wants to do. Destroy us. The Commurats are trying to do it while saying they are only concerned about our well being.
The President of the United States is not above the law.
Given that, the President of the United States will not be immune to a court order restraining him/her from signing into law a bill that has not “passed the House of Representatives and the Senate” as required by Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution of the United States.
What must it be like to be the President who’s idea’s suck so much that his own party has to jump throw hoops and perform in a three ring circus to get them passed?
It’s complicated on purpose. Makes my head hurt. Just wait until they add illegals to the system!
ROFL!
Sessions and the other Republicans are doing GREAT!!!
Yup, looks like I picked a bad year to quit drinking.
No-- we have a few more lesser known patriots in the Congress too. Judge them one by one. My critter is so low profile but a staunch conservative and proves it with his votes.
Is she on the Rules committee?
I think their scheme is that they either pass the House Bill, or more likely, the Senate amends the House Bill and passes a bill as amended and then returns it to the House where they can do this exercise all over again in April or May.
If that proves correct, the real issue will be whether they can pass the amended bill in the house--if they don't, they will need to face the real legal question of whether the fake actually created law.
They are! “Just the facts, Ma’am.” ;-)
Hope the USSC is watching these arrogant Democrats. This is an outrage.
Thanks for the link. :)
They don’t have the votes. Keep the pressure on. Call and fax.
Question:
Even if this bill is “deemed and passed,” does the Senate not have to pass reconciliation?
They haven’t yet, right? And the Republicans can make that process a living hell by challenging every aspect of it?
Isn’t that what Orrin Hatch said he would do?
Basically, is this our last line of defense, or do we have another line after this before it gets to Obama’s desk?
The Ways and Means report portrays healthcare reform as having a wide-ranging impact on how the IRS operates, including:
• IRS agents would be tasked with determining whether Americans had obtained the insurance coverage required under the individual mandate.
• Individuals could be fined $2,250 or 2 percent of income, whichever is greater, if you are unable to prove you have “minimum essential coverage.”
• The IRS would be empowered to confiscate tax refunds if necessary.
• Audits probably would increase as a result of the legislation’s new requirements.
• The budget for IRS operations will balloon by $10 billion in the next decade in order to administrate the new program.
• Nearly half of the new individual mandate taxes will be paid “by Americans earning less than 300 percent of poverty, $66150 for a family of four.
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