Confederate Yankee

March 22, 2010

Standing in the Fallout

Where do we go from here?

That was the question on the minds of Americans this morning as they awoke to find that Democrats have overridden overwhelming public opposition and forced through a massive entitlement program for the first time in our nation's history, purely along partisan lines.

Obamacare passed not because it reforms the health care system and reduces costs—it will create trillions in debt—but because of backroom deals, bribery, arm-twisting, deceptive accounting schemes, and outright lies from the majority party.

The select few who think they will benefit from this affront to liberty are giddy this morning with the prospect of what has transpired overnight. Most Americans however, awoke to a feeling of dread.

They know entitlement programs always cost far more than Democrats claim. They know that forcing employers to provide health care for all of their workers means that these employers are forced into the uncomfortable position of being bullied into providing health care they can't afford and watching their company's decline, or of letting go valued employees in the worst of times.

The first casualties of Obamacare are already rolling in. A commenter at WRAL lamented that the small business where his wife was employed was forced into firing 35 of their 60 part-time employees this morning because they would not be able to afford their health care. His wife was one of those let go. There will be tens, if not hundreds of thousands more that will lose their jobs. The economy will suffer as a result.

And Democrats are quietly pleased, because more will become dependent on the nanny state they would create and lord over.

America is angry. Americans feel betrayed. And yet the question remains.

Where do we go from here?

Some are calling for the armed revolt against this encroaching tyranny. It was for this specific reason, after all, that our Founders made sure Americans would not be denied the use of arms.

Some misguided souls seem to already be responding to this affront to liberty with violence. I fail to find the usefulness or utility of such symbolic and largely impotent acts. This sort of petty vandalism is not what the Founders sought to protect.

They sought to protect our right to replace—yes, overthow—would-be tyrants and rouges that history has taught us always eventually arrive to usurp power and run roughshod over the rights of the people.

As we have been told countless times by philosophers and statesmen, tyranny is always seeking power and it comes in many guises. Sometimes sunlight is enough to dissuade those who would enslave others. In other instances, the mechanisms of justice can undo such wrongs. Thankfully, the final mechanism our founders instill to protect us from tyranny has not had to be used since an isolated event 64 years ago.

We live in a nation full of freshly-experienced combat veterans and graying patriots alike that still remember their oaths to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The taste of liberty is much sweeter for them, having been to parts of the world where such things cannot be taken for granted. Pray that we are not required to call upon their service in a struggle against our own countrymen. God protect us all if we are forced to such extremes by a power-mad clique intent on transforming citizens into dependent subjects.

I have some hope that the courts will respond favorably to the many states suing to eradicate this unconstitutional scheme, or that November's elections will destroy the Democratic majority and lay the ground for a full repeal of a bad law designed purely for one party's political gain.

The thought of the morally-required alternative is almost too much to bear.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:31 AM | Comments (66) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

March 21, 2010

Media Matters Irate That I Stated An Obvious Truth

Media Matters is furious that I dared challenge the farcical Democratic claim that health care is a "right." when I wrote on my Twitter account:


the next one of these jackasses that calls #healthcare a "right" deserves to be drawn and quartered.

I proudly stand by that comment.

A handful of elitists spoke on the House floor this evening, arrogantly insisting that it was our financial obligation (yours and mine) to pay for the medical care of others, and insisting it is their "right" to be provided medical care.

It most certainty is not.

According to Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi (who just so happened to be the Democrat speaking when I wrote that tweet, but was assuredly not the first), it is my obligation to pay for your "right." I will be forced to pay for coverage, whether I want it or not. I will be forced to pay for the coverage of others, whether I want it or not.

I stand by my comment that the Democrats who crammed this unwarranted bill down the throats of the American people who clearly and overwhelmingly opposed it deserve to be drawn and quartered.

As Wikipedia notes, having someone "laboring against that person's will to benefit another, under some form of coercion" is the very definition of involuntary servitude... slavery. We are Americans, and will be slaves to no man, no Congress, and no President.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:14 PM | Comments (99) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Be Sure Thank your Congressional Reps For Obamacare

The votes are in, and Obamacare passed using the so-called "nuclear option" of a reconciliation vote, without a single Republican in favor of the bill, and 34 Democrats voting against our slide into tyranny.

The New York Times has publicized a helpful list of who cast their votes for continued freedom and who voted to force you into socialized medicine, raise your taxes, and create more unemployment.

Be sure you thank them in person.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:36 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

"Hell No You Can't"

John Boehner Sums up the problems with Obamacare.



Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:45 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

NOW Freaking Over Obama Executive Order; Stupak's Political Cover Compromised in an Hour

Every Obama promise comes with an expiration date. Stupak's promised executive order is dying already.


National Organization for Women President Terry O'Neill issued a statement Sunday afternoon slamming President Obama, saying that he had broken his faith with women by agreeing to issue an executive order that prohibits federal funding for abortions.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 05:59 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Those Who Refuse to Learn From History...

Every once in a while I'll get an email or a link to the words of Kitty Werthmann, an Austrian-born naturalized American citizen that watched Austrians give themselves to Hitler's creeping fascism, only too recognize their mistake after their freedoms were extinguished.

Today, her warning is haunting, and seems to echo what we see unfolding before us.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 05:16 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Stupak Joins Scheme Allowing Pro-Abortion Obamacare to Pass

Bark Stupak and his so-called "pro-life" Democrats are going to try to pull a fast one on the American people, and will vote for the pro-abortion Obamacare bill.


Health reform holdout Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan announced Sunday that he and fellow anti-abortion Democrats have reached an agreement with the White House to defuse the controversy over abortion in the health care bill and will now vote "yes" – which Stupak said gives Democrats enough votes to pass the sweeping overhaul by day’s end.

The move came just after the White House announced that President Barack Obama will sign an executive order reaffirming a ban on federal funding of abortions.

Stupak's "out" is a lie, which he knows in advance of the vote. Both the President and the Congress know—and have always known—that an executive order cannot override written law.

The scheme was concocted to allow Stupak and his allies to claim they were acting in good faith when they cast their votes for Obamacare, even though it finances abortion. The truth is that Stupak and his allies know that the Executive Order will be quickly struck down by the courts.

Stupak and the rest of the pro-life Democrats have abandoned their professed life-long ideals and principles in order to placate their leaders.

May history and judge them harshly for their cowardice.

Update:


House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) calls out the deception:


"The law of the land trumps any Executive Order, which can be reversed or altered at the stroke of a pen by this or any subsequent President without any congressional approval or notice. Moreover, while an Executive Order can direct members of the executive branch, it cannot direct the private sector.

"Because of Roe v. Wade, courts have interpreted the decision as a statutory mandate that the government must provide federal funding for elective abortion in through federal programs. In other words, no Executive Order or regulation can override a statutory mandate unless Congress passes a law that prohibits federal funding from being used in this manner."


Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 04:29 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Reconciliation Off the Table if Senate Bill Fails to Pass?

Seems to good to be true, but is the House reconciliation bill dead on arrival? That what the Senate Republicans have claimed via email:


BREAKING: “FIX” BILL MAY NOT ADVANCE IN SENATE

Senate Democrats Refuse Bi-partisan Meeting With Parliamentarian Until After House Votes


WASHINGTON DC – Senate Democrats have balked at a bi-partisan meeting with the Senate Parliamentarian to discuss a rule violation that could doom the entire House reconciliation proposal.

DON STEWART, McCONNELL SPOKESMAN: "Republicans have been trying to set up a meeting with Senate Democrats since yesterday to discuss this fatal point of order but have been met with nothing but silence. We suspect Democrats are slow walking us so as to have the House vote first. Since Senate Democrats refuse to meet with us and the Parliamentarian, we’ve informed our colleagues in the House that we believe the bill they’re now considering violates the clear language of Section 310g of the Congressional Budget Act, and the entire reconciliation bill is subject to a point of order and rejection in the Senate should it pass the House."
BACKGROUND

DEMOCRAT LEADERSHIP RELEASE: "The Congressional Budget Office estimate of the health care legislation shows an increase in Social Security revenues… CBO projects that the resulting increase in wages will generate $29 billion in additional FICA contributions to the Social Security Trust Fund." ("Health Care Reform Update," Office of Rep. Steny Hoyer, 3/21/10)

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT: "LIMITATION ON CHANGES TO THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, it shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any reconciliation bill or reconciliation resolution reported pursuant to a concurrent resolution on the budget agreed to under section 301 or 304, or a joint resolution pursuant to section 258C of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, or any amendment thereto or conference report thereon, that contains recommendations with respect to the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance program established under title II of the Social Security Act." (Congressional Budget Act Of 1974, Sec. 310g, P. 31)

This is only noteworthy if the House can't pass the Senate Bill. If Pelosi gets the votes to pass the Senate Bill—which is very much in doubt at this moment—then Obamacare will go to the President and be law by nightfall.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:35 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Pelosi is Falling Short?

The so-called "conventional wisdom" on today's health care rationing vote (Obamacare) seems to be indicating that if the pro-life Democratic block of Bart Stupak cannot be bought off in the final hours before the vote, then Nancy Pelosi will fall 2-3 votes short of passing Obamacare.

Two Tennessee Demcorat that have decided to cast no votes have put the Speaker in "a major bind."

This now running in red on Drudge:


FLASH: Senate Republicans found a provision in the new House health care bill that likely makes it ineligible for expedited 'reconciliation' procedures in the Senate. Dems refused to meet with GOP and Parliamentarian.... Developing....

It also appears&mdash according to a Drudge teaser—that House Democrats are gun-shy of being the deciding vote. Drudge has Pelosi saying to Steny Hoyer, "'Steny, we have to get to 217. None of these members wants to be the deciding vote'."

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:40 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Did Black Representative Lie About Racial Slurs?

The Dana Show posts video of John Lewis (D-GA) through a crowd of Tea Party protesters yesterday, and the audio suggests that nothing remotely like a racial slur was hurled at him.



They video is only 22 seconds long, but in our camera-saturated society, other videos will pop up today of Lewis, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) going through the crowd as well.

I'm sure that if recordings prove that no slurs were directed at them, Lewis, Clyburn, and Cleaver will contritely apologize for slandering the protesters.

Yeah, right.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:29 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

March 20, 2010

Same Liberals that Routinely Use Sex Slur Against Protestors Get Vapors Over Dubious Allegations That Coarse Language Was Used Towards Their Congressmen

After more than a year of hearing liberals spit out the derogatory word "teabagger" at Tea Party protestors, I couldn't give a crap if a handful of Democrats claimed—without any corroboration—that bad language was hurled their way.

Just be thankful it wasn't the tar and feathers they deserve.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:40 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ready to Riot?

I ran out on some errands this morning, and noticed several things.

The gun store downtown was doing what I suspect was unusually brisk business for an early Saturday morning outside of hunting season. This same gun store's parking lot was overflowing mid-afternoon yesterday shortly after 3:30 PM, with traffic filling the lot, the nearby on-street parking filled, and overflow parking spilling into the gravel lot next door.

I've also seen a minivan with a warning/threat against Obamacare written in red paint on the windows (I didn't get a great look at it as it was moving in the opposite direction, but I got the gist of it).

This is hardly the equivalent of militiamen forming on the village green, but there seems to be a distinct undercurrent of frustration and rage building against the federal government in general, the tricks of Democratic Party in specific, and tomorrow's Obamacare may be the catalyst.

I don't sense any organization, but strong sentiment appears to be brewing. Is anyone else seeing similar behavior where they live?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:52 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

House Dems Claim Memo that Accurately Reflects Their Plot Is a Fake

Yesterday blogs and other news outlets posted a memo provided by Republicans that was said to have been circulated by Democrats. The memo outlined a scheme to lie about (or direct attention away from) the true cost of Obamacare, and then pass separate laws later in the year that would drive the overall cost of the plan even higher.

Talking Points Memo is being very careful handling this, and they should; whether or not the memo originated from a Democratic staffer or strategist or was a dirty trick is utterly irrelevant. The source isn't what matters. The memo accurately reflects known positions of previous iterations of Obamacare that Democrats were begrudgingly forced to temporarily drop to get enough votes to make the bill passable.

It is entirely credible—and in fact likely—that Nancy Pelosi's House leadership are plotting to do precisely what the memo outlines.

Interestingly enough, Republicans won't cite the source for the memo. Democrats are claiming that it is a fake generated by Republicans.

It is more likely that the memo is a sanitized version of actual Democratic plans, passed along to Republicans by House Democrats opposed to the costs, plots, and rationing associated with the dishonest socialist attempt to grab for themselves power that rightfully belongs to the people.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:57 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

March 19, 2010

Passing Obamacare Will Cost American Jobs

That is the only honest takeaway you can have reading this article from Chicago Breaking Business News:


Caterpillar Inc. said the health-care overhaul legislation being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives would increase the company's health-care costs by more than $100 million in the first year alone.

In a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, Caterpillar urged lawmakers to vote against the plan "because of the substantial cost burdens it would place on our shareholders, employees and retirees."

Caterpillar, the world's largest construction machinery manufacturer by sales, said it's particularly opposed to provisions in the bill that would expand Medicare taxes and mandate insurance coverage. The legislation would require nearly all companies to provide health insurance for their employees or face large fines.

The Peoria-based company said these provisions would increase its insurance costs by at least 20 percent, or more than $100 million, just in the first year of the health-care overhaul program.

"We can ill-afford cost increases that place us at a disadvantage versus our global competitors," said the letter signed by Gregory Folley, vice president and chief human resources officer of Caterpillar. "We are disappointed that efforts at reform have not addressed the cost concerns we've raised throughout the year."

Business executives have long complained that the options offered for covering 32 million uninsured Americans would result in higher insurance costs for those employers that already provide coverage. Opponents have stepped up their attacks in recent days as the House moves closer toward a vote on the Senate version of the health-care legislation.

If Obama passes:

  • Companies that already pay health insurance will have to pay higher rates, meaning less profitability, higher costs, and fewer jobs
  • Companies that don't currently pay health insurance will have to pay high health insurance rates, meaning less profitability, higher costs, and fewer jobs.
  • Companies that cannot withstand the high costs of forced health care will simply shut down.

In all three situations, job loss—or at least the absence of job creation—is a certainty.

If Democrats really want to save or create jobs they'll vote against Obamacare.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:27 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Fraud, Treason, and Violence

12 hours after first reading Jeffrey Anderson's revelation that the real ten-year costs of Obamacare, I'm having a hard time getting my mind around the scale of the duplicity:


To see the bill's true first-decade costs, we need to start the clock when the costs would actually start in any meaningful way: in 2014. The CBO says that Obamacare would cost $2.0 trillion in the bill's real first decade (from 2014 to 2023) — and much more in the decades to come.

But $2.0 trillion wouldn't be the total ten-year costs. Instead, that would merely be the "gross cost of coverage provisions." Based on earlier incarnations of the proposed overhaul, the total costs would be about a third higher (the exact number can't be gleaned from the CBO's analysis, which is only preliminary and is not a full scoring) — making the total price-tag between $2.5 and $3 trillion over the bill's real first decade.

"...making the total price-tag between $2.5 and $3 trillion over the bill's real first decade."

Don't bother trying to wrap your mind around the specific figures involved, because they are far too large to be viewed in anything but the abstract .

Instead, focus on what the Democratic Party has done to conceal those numbers. Focus on what they've done in order to lie to you.

Steny Hoyer and House Democrats crowed yesterday morning when they revealed that the Congressional Budget Office scoring of Obamacare put the cost of the program at "just" $940 billion.

What House Democrats and their allies in the media will not tell you is that the CBO is constrained to using strict instructions and parameters provided by Nancy Pelosi and the House leadership.

As briefly noted yesterday, the CBO was handcuffed by House Democrats, and forced to use bogus figures and timelines and other unrealistic constraints as the Democratic Party carried out an orchestrated campaign of fraud unprecedented in cost. Sadly, these Democrats dragged the non-partisan CBO into the scheme as unwilling accomplice.

The real coss of Obamacare over ten years is $2.5 to $3 trillion, or $1.5 to $2 trillion more than the Democratic Party is claiming.

Now, let's make this next point very, very clear.

Barack Obama knew in advance the real cost of the legislation that bears his name. He embraced the lie, has lied, and will continue to lie to your face about the cost.

Nancy Pelosi knows the real cost of the legislation, and along with other Democratic leaders in the House, was instrumental in purposefully deceiving the American people by hiding this cost.

Likewise, Harry Reid and other Senate Democratic leaders were well aware of the conspiracy to deceive the American people, well before the scheme went into motion.

The 44th President of the United States Barack Hussein Obama, 60th Speaker of the House Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi, and 24th Senate Majority Leader Harry Mason Reid conspired to hide the true cost of Obamacare, and have attempted to defraud the people of the United States. They think you are idiots. They think they can fool you. They think you'll take it lying down.

And maybe they are right. So they've made a calculated risk.

Obama, Pelosi, Reid and their accomplices know that they will never see the inside of a court of law for perpetrating this fraud. Hell... they write the law. They always provide themselves with an out.

But what is legal and what is moral are often quite different things, and never are the two further apart than when we're discussing politics.

The fraud Obama, Pelosi, and Reid and engaged in is a clear economic threat to the future of the United States, one which may bankrupt the nation. Their attempt to fundamentally transform our Republic through trickery and deceit are no less an affront to this nation that was the deception carried out by General Benedict Arnold when he attempted to hand over West Point to the British.

Does their fraud and conspiracy meet the legal definition of treason? No documents or conversations currently known to the public could support such a charge. But I defy anyone to proclaim that a conspiracy of politicians to seize one-sixth of the most powerful economy in the history of the planet by means of deception and lies is not morally a capital crime.

Nor do I suspect the Founding Fathers would have stood idly by as the Republic they envisioned was subverted into a lesser state where people became unwilling subjects to a greedy and ever-hungry government.

They would fight. They would kill, if they had to. They did.

I cannot forecast the future, and do not know if Sunday's vote on Obamacare will bring about a momentary respite from encroaching tyranny of our present government or usher us ever faster towards the precipice.

Like you, though, I am a student of history. We know that tyrants are never sated by small bites of freedom. They will continue to consume liberties until they are driven off, are killed, or are victorious.

Violence is in our nation's future. It remains to be seen if it will be violence towards tyrants, or violence towards liberty.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:31 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

March 18, 2010

Actual Cost of Obamacare: $2+ Trillion

Lying. Rat. Bastards.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:47 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Fired Teacher Hangs Obama in Effigy... In Classroom

Superintendent Frances Gallo, the administrator who fired all the teachers at Central Falls High School when they refused to work slightly longer hours to help their students (at $30/hr), found an unlikely backer in President Obama. The fired teachers will complete this semester, but will not be back in the fall.

Now, the teachers—mostly Democrats—are peeling the Obama campaign stickers off their cars, and some are doing worse. Gallo was forced to sneak into Central Falls High in the dead of night to find just how far one teacher had gone to denounce Obama:


Gallo knew Obama's endorsement would create further uproar. She just didn't know how bad it would get.

She continued making her way through the school, clearing the first two floors. She was disheartened by the newspaper postings but relieved she hadn't found the offensive item.

One floor to go.

She climbed the steps and entered a classroom.

There it was.

"You couldn't miss it."

An Obama doll, about a foot tall, hung by its feet from the white board; the doll held a sign that said, "Fire Central Falls teachers," she says.

Racists.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:05 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

CBO Numbers Cited By Dem Leadership are Bogus; Could It Backfire?

Matthew Continetti notes that Steny Hoyer to various new organizations about the CBO's health care cost estimate are speculative, based upon preliminary numbers that does not take into the account reconciliation proposal, review, and refinement.

In other words, they're crap. The media ran with Hoyer's claims without having the evidence in-hand.

Will the media hold Hoyer and his Democratic allies accountable for this subterfuge, or are they in on the fix?

And will this lie damage already faltering Democratic efforts to force through a bill that the public clearly doesn't want passed?

Update: To lie was their goal all along:


If it kicked in right away, the decade-long estimate would obviously be well into the trillions. So they simply stalled it for four years, incurring just $17 billion in costs — or 1.8 percent of the total 10-year estimate — through 2013 so that wavering Democrats could go back to their districts and tell baldfaced lies to their constituents about the pricetag. A perfect ending to this travesty.

In what can only be cast as a desperate act, the Democratic leadership is trying to convince members of their Party to out-and-out- lie to their constituents.

I guess we'll find out Sunday if on-the-fence Dems are willing to make that lie.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:14 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

You Lie! CBO Report On Health Care Merely Garbage In, Garbage Out

Leave it to tax-and-spend liberals to trumpet a $940 billion boondoggle as some sort of cost-savings measure.

Especially since the numbers don't really exist.

But let's go with the lie for a moment.

Hey, if I drive competent people out of an entire sector of the economy and replace them with dim-witted drones (think TSA airport screeners with access to your most personal information), I can trumpet "savings" of a sort as well.

You just won't like the result.

Of course, the Democrats can claim deficit reduction in the CBO's numbers because the Congressional Budget Office merely calculates the data they are given; they do not weigh in on whether those figures are arrived at by honest data or data which has been manipulated.

As is so often the case, the numbers provided the CBO by House Democrats is more rigged with more tricks than Dolly Parton's superstructure.

The CBO figures trumpeted by Democrats is based on junk, because junk is what they fed them.

Here are some graphs that represent the true costs of health care reform. They don't represent the latest tweaks in the House bill, but instead were compiled from a nearly identical House plan and the Senate plan.

First, a graph based upon an earlier CBO report of a previous version of the House Bill (source).



Now the Senate Bill (source).



One thing you'll note in any honest representation of the Democratic health care rationing scam is that it is going to cost us hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars to create a system when none are turned away, but all are equally miserable.

There can be health care reform. There will be health care reform. But it can be done without bankrupting our nation, or growing a federal government already intent on devouring our individual liberties.

Let's scrap this trainwreck, and start over with a bill that make sense, that all Americans can get behind.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:07 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Obama Not Bothered by Possibly Un-Constitutional "Procedural" Deem-and-Pass Scheme; Dem House Leaders Set Selves Up For Future Ethics Charges

Just win, baby:


The president, in an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, responded for the first time to the controversy over a plan to use a parliamentary maneuver to allow the House to pass the Senate's health care bill without forcing members to vote for it directly.

The esoteric procedure has drawn fierce protest from Republicans, who say Democrats are trying to avoid accountability. But the president said there will be no doubt about where lawmakers stand on health care reform.

"I don't spend a lot of time worrying about what the procedural rules are in the House or Senate," Obama said. "What I can tell you is that the vote that's taken in the House will be a vote for health care reform."

At Volokh, experts suggest that using deem-and-pass (or "demon pass" as some have dubbed it) will bring the Constitutionality of the legislation in question, as it would assume a controversial law passed without directly voting on it, seemingly in clear violation of the Constitutional requirement. While supporters of the Demcratic scheme are quick to point out that deem-and-pass has been used previously by both Democrats and Republicans, the simple fact of the matter is that it has never before been used to force through legislation that did not have clear majority support.

Deem-and-pass has been used to pass legislation unpopular with voters but with scant opposition in Congress; using it as a trick to avoid possible rejection in an open vote is clearly against what the Founders intended, and arguably grounds for ethics charges to be brought against Democratic leaders who are clearly acting in bad faith.

While there is little chance that the current Congress would bring up Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Louise Slaughter, and other Democratic architects of the scam up on charges, the possibility exists that a November revolt that returns the House to Republican control could see such charges pursued. Based upon the public's strong opposition to the current health care rationing bill, such ethics cases would likely find overwhelming public support.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:13 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

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