{"id":3060,"date":"2010-03-16T14:21:26","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T19:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stonescryout.org\/?p=3060"},"modified":"2010-03-16T14:21:26","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T19:21:26","slug":"so-much-for-an-up-or-down-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/?p=3060","title":{"rendered":"So Much For an "Up or Down Vote""},"content":{"rendered":"

Can’t get a 60-vote majority, and reconciliation seems unobtainable?  Just play make-believe.<\/a><\/p>\n

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After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate’s health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi<\/a> suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

The tactic — known as a "self-executing rule"<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n

"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."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Why bother with a pesky Presidential signature, or an actual up-or-down vote, when keister-covering is so much more politically expedient?  Let’s just pretend the bill passed.<\/p>\n

Shouldn’t something as massive as this have broad bipartisan support?  But not even the Democrats themselves, when they held a 60-vote majority, could get it past their own folks.  This is just wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can’t get a 60-vote majority, and reconciliation seems unobtainable?  Just play make-believe. After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate’s health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it. Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,9,18,275,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democrats","category-doug","category-government","category-healthcare","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t