print“A procedural sleight of hand,” the Washington Post calls Pelosi’s putative plan to pass her hulking healthcare bill without having members vote on it.
Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers “deem” the health-care bill to be passed.
The tactic — known as a “self-executing rule” or a “deem and pass” — has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.
“It’s more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know,” the speaker said in a roundtable discussion with bloggers Monday. “But I like it,” she said, “because people don’t have to vote on the Senate bill.”
This is not unusual; Republicans have resorted to “deem and pass” in the past, but will now make a big fuss, I hope. However, let this country not be lauded, as it often is, by the pundit peanut gallery for the great democracy it is. It is well-accepted that in a democracy the minority is thwarted. Less accepted is the fact that democracy bypasses the majority as well.
Update I: Via Glenn Beck a chart depicting the bypassing of democracy discussed in this post:
Update II (March 17): BAIER BADGERS BARACK. Bret has to be saluted for his valiant efforts to get this smooth operator of a president to answer a question instead of mouth agitprop, in this exclusive FoxNews interview. It’s worth watching Baier at work. He’s good. But, of course, the top propagandist had the upper hand in the end.
Re the self-executing bill, the recent past shows Ms. Pelosi presently a wicked fraud or non compos mentis (recalling your recent post on self-contradiction).
Passing 1000 page laws without reading them like the so called stimulus. Now we want to pass a 2000 page law not only without reading it because it hasn’t even been written and, as I understand, won’t be until it is actually a law. This trillion dollar, freedom robbing, health care killing, economy killing monstrosity is to be passed through the House without the House even voting on it. I am reminded of an old George C. Scott movie called “The Flim Flam Man”. The Flim Flammers are in Congress and the Flim Flamees are our here paying the bill.
The expletive deleted that passes for leadership in this nation today is sad indeed. I remember the Watergate scandal from my teenage years. Nixon and his crowd were truly pikers compared to today’s crew of pretenders!
Comment #2
It’s interesting the framers designed our republic to prevent the rule of the mob as represented by pure democracy. Today Nancy Pelosi is trying to rule the majority of the electorate by the rule of the mob.
Memo To Erudites:
Isn’t ‘sleight of hand’ a euphemism for cheating (at worst) and at best, a description of misdirection for purposes of illusion… in other words, a trick?
AAAaaarrrggghhh… it’s enough to make a minister take up profanity… dang it.
Or write tripe like this…
The ‘Charmin’ Ms. Slaughter
Should the aptly named Ms. Slaughter
Pull off her Parliamentary Caper
And reduce the Constitution to
Congressional toilet paper
America would have no choice
But adopt this electoral tenet
Come this November we will… we shall!
Flush both House and Senate!!!
Keep up the great work dear! [You too!]
Ray
Alexander Hamilton has been reincarnated. If only the same could be said of Jefferson…..
[Hamilton, with all his faults, in my opinion, cannot be compared with these people. It’s a mistake to do so, imo.]