As Benjamin Franklin has been quoted as saying at the time of America’s founding, he helped create “A republic, sir, if you can keep it.”
Which should be until, oh about sometime next week or so, when it’s Slaughtertime:
Via the Right Scoop, a tribute to the Madisonian genius who decided that Bill A — which would affect one-sixth of the American economy — can be “deemed” passed without a separate vote if Bill B is pushed through. So byzantine has the procedural framework become that I’m not sure if Pelosi’s still planning on using it. I thought not when I read Ed’s post earlier, but what about this bit from Politico on the Dems’ meeting this morning?
AdvertisementIn addition, it looks like House Democrats won’t have to vote directly on a Senate bill they really don’t like. The speaker hasn’t made a final decision, but she told her rank-and-file during the meeting that the plan now is to craft a rule that would “deem” the Senate bill passed once they approve the package of fixes.
Apparently they are going to use it, albeit with the knowledge that Obama can only sign (and must sign) the underlying Senate bill, not the “fix,” before Reid proceeds to reconciliation. Which means that, for probably the first time in U.S. history, the president will be signing into law a bill that never received its own vote on the House floor. The “what if a Republican did it?” meme is overused, but clear your mind and try to imagine the media reaction if the Frist/Hastert Congress tried something like this for, oh, say, social security reform. If ever you’re tempted to agree with idiots on the left who think the press is balanced, let that thought experiment be your corrective.
Or as the Wall Street Journal dubs it, “ObamaCare — The Worst Deal of All Time.”
–> Healthcare Costs x 40%
Mike: I have a $4 coupon here for a hamburger.
Server: (loudly to kitchen) Burger, well done, no salt, no cheese, no fries, half a bun. (to Mike) We’ll have it for you in an hour.
Mike: Wait, I don’t want it like that!
Server: It’s free. Stop complaining.
Mike: (looks at next table) Their meals look good.
Server: Politicians and union guys. Where do you work?
Mike: Acme Manufacturing, why?
Server: We’ll bill them for the other $6. Hah, they’ll be happy.
Mike: Say, what sort of restaurant is this?
Server: Obama’s Restaurant.
The Congressional Budget Office released another estimate for ObamaCare. It still omits the cost of new private-sector mandates, nine months after the first version was released. President Obama has implicitly acknowledged this omission. The mandates will likely cost 1.5 times the amounts spent directly by government.
There’s ‘crazy‘ and then there’s full-on, loony-left insane and that’s the word that all too frequently pops into my head to describe the nut-jobs in the zero administration (evil being a close second).
This has got to be one of the most Anti-American, pro-takeover-at-any/all-cost presidencies ever.
Could it be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court?
.
Marshal,
After Obama appoints three justices? I don’t think so.
It is staggering to witness the sheer blindness that afflicts these people as to how all this is seen outside their bubble.
Ya know what this reminds me of? Have you seen those ads for Ally Bank with the banker and the little kids? He asks the kid if he wants a bike or whatever, and the kid’s eyes light up and he says “Yeah!” THe kid jumps on the bike in excitelment, and then the banker tells him about the fine print that says he can only ride it for six inches or whatever.
And the kid just looks at him in silence.
Catch phrase: (paraphrasing) “Even kids know when you’re jackin’ ‘em around with the fine print”.
This is exactly the reaction of millions of Americans to this procedural nonsense. If pinned down, Dem lawyers will be quite capable of nailing down a bunch of arcane legal mumbo-jumbo to tell us why it is all legal, and every single one of us will look at them with the same look as those kids: We are not lawyers, or constitutional scholars, but even we rubes know when you guys are jerking us around and playing stupid games with us, big time (for catastrophically high stakes). ANd we know what our Founders intended for us, thank you very much, and this AIN’T it, big fella.
And of course, these brilliant people do not, will not and can not see it, if their lives (well, careers) depended on it.
This is all profoundly disquieting. These people eat, breathe, and live for a government they are soiling and deligitimizing before our eyes, and they seem utterly and hopelessly oblivious to what they do.
Like little kids playing with Daddy’s gun.
Andrew M Garland,
But can he do that before November? And if
they do ram the bill through how long would
it take to get it before the Supreme Court
for some sort of decision?
.
Marshal,
Good point. Members of Congress will sue if the Health Reform act passes, and the Court would have every incentive to act quickly.
I’m worried about what happens to the Constitution after two more Obama appointments to the Court.