This is grossly unconstitutional, but what would you expect? Perhaps we should start referring to them as the “Kamikaze Congress.”
Republicans now expect Democrats to pass health care through the House with a trick only Capitol Hill could dream up: approving the Senate bill without voting on it.
It’s called the “Slaughter Solution” (prepare for a weekend of endless TV gabbing about it).
And after debating House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on the chamber floor, Minority Whip Eric Cantor emerged convinced that Democrats are going to use the tactic, and that they won’t allow Republicans, and the public, to see the text of any legislation for 72 hours before a vote.
“I can infer that we’re going to see a rule that will deem the Senate bill as having passed, and at the same time not even have 72 hours to even look at what they are passing,” Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said in an interview outside his office at the Capitol.
“The outrage to me on the part of the public is going to be focused on the fact that there is not even an up or down vote, a clean up or down vote,” Cantor said.
Here’s the reason Democrats are using such a complicated procedure: many in the House completely do not trust the Senate to pass fixes to the bill passed by the Senate in December. But according to the rules of reconciliation, the House must go first in passing the Senate bill and passing a reconciliation fix. Continue reading ‘House Democrats Appear Set to Pass Senate Bill Without Voting on It’
George Will: ‘The House Is All That Matters’
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQyNttQVmWM[/youtube]
As he often does, George Will made an excellent point on “This Week,” regarding the status of the health care vote in Congress. Will said that the vote in the House of Representatives is “all that matters.” If the House passes the Senate Bill as is, it can then go to President Obama’s desk and become law. Will said that Democrats do not currently have the votes to pass it.