Posted on 03/14/2010 2:56:12 PM PDT by BarnacleCenturion
“The question now is what are the rest of us going to do about it?”
The question of the century.
IMHO
Republicans have, in fact, used similar “self-executing” rules to amend legislation without a vote (see link next paragraph).
Well now.
Okay, I guess we're going to have to argue over whether the uses are exactly the same or totally different.
Meh. My point remains the same: Self-executing rules have been used by both parties. Both parties complain about the use of self-executing rules when they're in the minority.* Self-executing rules have not been ruled unconstitutional.
*The same way the majority party always complains about the filibuster.
” Too bad the Prez pissed them off during the State of the Union Speech. “
“Thank God, the Prez pissed them off during the State of the Union speech.”
There, fixed it.
Yeah; I’m really glad he did piss the Supremes off. I just thought it showed “low class” on his part.
Obama is nothing but a street punk with a phony Harvard Law degree.
That's the problem, the above phrase doesn't cover progressives...
But people with a capacity for logic and sensible distinctions will also see the clear difference between raising the debt ceiling – or executing other fiscal maneuvers – without a vote; and changing the law of the land in an unprecedented way to tax, levy mandates on, and constrain the options of America’s 300-million-plus people, without a vote.
However bad an idea it is, raising the national debt ceiling is a measure to keep the path we’re currently on viable, at least for the short term. It’s a means of not having to undertake sweeping changes in how the government is operating, and what the people expect of it.
The health care reform bills in Congress are the exact opposite of that. They represent, above all else, sweeping changes: an individual mandate to purchase non-liability insurance – something there is no precedent for and no analogy to at the federal level; business- and job-killing changes to employer mandates; a whole new set of embedded taxes; an enormous pile of unfunded mandates for the states; the infamous “effectiveness research institutes,” which would evaluate medical practices on a cost-benefit basis; and, of course, drastic cuts to Medicare, cuts that would unquestionably change the program’s very nature. Not to mention the open door in the Senate bill to government funding of abortions.
This was the 'Gephardt Rule' - another Democrat. Used by the soylent green spenders of the 2003 Congress. Though a "hidden vote", I'm betting it was bi-partisan unlike this monstrosity. Stoke the fires where you are wanted. This is bad and trying to say 'they do it too' is pure piss. Cheers!
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