House may pass healthcare reform bill without voting on it
I am not sure how credible this story is, but it looks as though House Democrats may be working on a plan to pass the Senate version of the healthcare reform bill without ever voting on it. If it is true, the Democrats may be looking at the “‘Slaughter Solution’ as a way to pass healthcare reform. What is the “‘Slaughter Solution?”
House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.
“Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.
“Slaughter has not taken the plan to Speaker Pelosi as Democrats await CBO scores on the corrections bill. ‘Once the CBO gives us the score, we’ll spring right on it,’ she said.”
This would allow the House to “deem” the senate version of the bill passed without actually taking a vote on it. Members would still have to vote on the rule change, but they wouldn’t actually have to vote on the bill. Of course anyone who would vote for a rule change that would pass healthcare reform without a vote is actually voting for healthcare reform with this rule change. It is a game of semantics; anyone who opposes the heathcare reform bill would surely vote against this rule change, while those that support the healthcare reform bill would be the ones most likely to vote in favor of the rule change.
Is this an attempt to provide cover for those who are facing tough re-election campaigns by giving them the chance to say that they didn’t vote for the bill, even though they voted for the rule that would allow the bill to pass without a vote? If so, do they really think we are this damned stupid? Do they really think that we won’t see through this? Do they really hold us in such contempt?
I can’t imagine that the House would ever vote in favor of such a rules change, and Nancy Pelosi hasn’t been approached yet with this proposal, but it does show us how desperate some Democrats have become. And you just never know.
Update: Part 2 can be read here.
America's Watchtower 
I hope to God this is not true~ Geez! I wish the elections were today! I also wish we could impeach or kick out every last one of them!
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We will get our chance in November, I just hope it isn’t too late by then.
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Heritage commented on this here.
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/03/10/obamacare%E2%80%99s-procedural-fraud-on-the-american-people/
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Thanks for the link.
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At least they’re creative… got to give them that
What a bunch of worms… can’t wait to step on them in November.
Americans are going to deal a harsh retribution for such abuse of power and
bad-faith parliamentary tricks- and they’ll be out of power for a decade or more
Talk about a blown opportunity- all they had to do was consult qualified experts and rule from the center… but NO, they had to have their little revolution. The price will be hefty indeed.
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Very True, they will pay a heavy price for their over-reach. They did have an opportunity to do some things but they went too far, too fast. They could have done it in small steps and the people wouldn’t have noticed until it was too late to do anything. They WILL pay for this in November, I can’t wait!
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Hey Congress!
You feelin lucky?
Go ahead Punk…Make my day in November.
The more they push the absurd the more an angry public will wake up to the fact that their vote means something.
Elections have consequences will be the bumper sticker.
The silent conservative majority is continuing to amass under these troubling times.
They will become the voter block that falls squarely on the heads of the progressives.
The Slaughter bill will be deemed unconstitutional and the Healthcare bill will be rescinded if the Dems are blind enough to go down that rabbit hole.
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I almost hope they try it because of what will happen to them in November.
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I wonder if this would face a Constitutional challenge, as it isn’t actually being voted on?
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I hope so. I don’t know how they can get away with this, but I also don’t think there are enough of them stupid enough to go along with this idea. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.
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You have got to be kidding me. Do they seriously believe the American people are ignorant enough to fall for a political trick like this?
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I think that they must think we are ignorant. It is extremely brazen of them to even admit they might do something like this.
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Why should anyone be surprised? These people are playing with fire and they are going to burn away ANY chance of being considered a “human” again. Furthermore, they ARE going to get booted out of office in the November elections.
The mere fact that they are even discussing this “Slaughter Solution” in front of the country constitutes an appalling violation of public trust! These people have brought disgrace to the office they presently hold.
They are hypocrites, they swore to uphold the very rules they now want to circumcise to circumvent.
They should be ashamed of themselves.
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If they actually had the votes to pass the Senate bill, they would do it directly, and they’d do it today. These machinations show that they are desperate to get the thing passed, and that they cannot do it in a democratic fashion. I’ve never been prouder of the system our Founding Fathers set up, nor more worried that a small minority of statists are trying to tear that system down.
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Vert true, the vote would already have taken place if the votes were there. This is the last act of a desperate congress to pass this bill. If they manage to pass this bill without voting on it, the floodgates will be opened for all sorts of legislation to be pushed through without passing the proper procedure that was designed to stop this sort of activity from taking place.
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This is the most specific part of the Constitution. Assuming the dems try this ,it will essentially be sending a bill to the president that hasn’t been voted on by congress. Unprecedented. This will amount to a form of martial law. Demanding the people purchase health insurance by mandate of the president and not by a law passed by congress. This would be, in my opinion, the most direct violation of the Constitution since, perhaps, the civil war. It will , therefore, be illegal for any law enforcement agency to enforce and I will not be participating. That’s my take on the situation and I believe it’s still “on the table” so to speak.
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This certainly seems like a violation of Article 1 Section 7 which states:
“in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively.”
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