Dan

Or longer if Harry Reid does not succeed in herding the cats in the Senate.

I can see R’s and some of the D’s in the Senate just slowing things down, a whole bunch once the bill comes back to the Senate and then where will his Obamaness be? I just don’t see Senators rushing to drink the cup of hemlock that Obamacare is going to be in November.

As long as the American people are raising heck over this mess, Senators are going to slow down or even stop the process.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580904575131460390057440.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

The way I understand it, the House will be passing a reconciliation bill (“Bill A”) that will contain within it a self-executing rule stating that, so long as the reconciliation bill passes, the Senate bill (“Bill B”) is deemed passed. Then, the House sends Bill B to Obama for his signature and the Senate takes up Bill A.

The problem is that the House can’t pass both bills, i.e., “Bill AB,” but only have the President sign Bill B; it’s the same reasoning that the Supreme Court used to invalidate the line item veto, i.e., the President must sign exactly what is passed by both houses of Congress and so he cannot ignore half of what the House is about to approve.

Oh, and I’m pretty sure Justices Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito would love to spank The One after the State of the Union nonsense. How ironic and glorifying would it be for Obama’s cheap political stunt to come back and bite him in the butt?

For those who worry that the Supreme Court won’t take this up, here’s this: yes, there is precedent for the notion that the courts won’t disturb the legislative process. But that case, Fields v. Clark, had to do with a factual dispute over whether both houses of Congress passed something. The Supreme Court there said it won’t get into the nitty gritty of the legislative process and, so long as the congressional leadership says it has passed, it will not interfere. The potential healthcare case is different in that there will be no dispute over whether something was passed, but whether that passage violated the Constitution. The Supreme Court can definitely get involved in that. Will it? Impossible to say, but as the Court said in Marbury v. Madison, the case that established judicial review of congressional action, the Supreme Court is there to interpret the Constitution and remedy violations. It’s true that the Constitution allows each house to make up its own rules, but that cannot be used to bypass other constitutional requirements, as it would render them moot. That is a well-established mode of legal analysis, i.e., the courts must give effect to every single provision, be it will, contract, corporate resolution or constitutional requirement.

As a lawyer, this will get very interesting.

“If the Dems are fanatical enough to pull a Farouk and suicide bomb themselves to an instant political death, then how ironic would it be if the Supreme Court that the One insulted on live international television has a legal, and clear opportunity to strike down the One’s main domestic priority?”

Tony Blankley seemed to be saying the same thing, though not as clearly, in a recent article. It’s at the end of this column:

http://townhall.com/columnists/TonyBlankley/2010/03/17/constitutional_law_101?page=full&comments=true

We must keep our wits.

Triton

It appears it’s not enough to just have these “yes” vote people lose their seats.
We will have to hound them in whatever they do next—or at least tell them we will. If they get a cushy Obama appointment—we target them.

If they go home to be a lawyer, lobbyist—-whatever—we ridicule them in the local restaurant or wherever they are seen. Maybe call it Redstate Afterlife.

It may be too late but a billboard campaign in their home districts with their faces on it and a “Congresssman So and So wants to take away your healthcare. Tell them to vote no”.

Having their mug on a huge billboard would drive them even more crazy than they already are.

becomes law. They would only be voting on the recon bill again.

It appear many close to the beltway are saying Pelosi has the votes, just trying to trying to pull more yes votes to give others in contested districts cover to vote no. It will not work.

Until they pass the Senate Bill intact, or defeat ObamaCare altogether.

Pelosi and Company are not going to be able to escape responsibility for their votes, nor will they be allowed to dictate the language of the final bill.

Without the consent of the constitution hence CONSTITUTIONAL RAPE
Without consent of the people hence DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES RAPE
without consent of the law hence LEGAL RAPE
From this rape a bastard named OBAMACARE shall be concieved and this is where pro lifers and pro choicers have common ground we both believe that abortion in the case of RAPE while still disgusting to us pro lifers is justifiable

SO COME ON PRO CHOICERS LETS BAND TOGETHER AND ABORT THIS MONSTER
kill the bill just consider it a feotus that should make it easier for you guys

The lie has to be exposed: House “Fix” bill — and all those deals and promises being made in exchange for votes — will never come close to becoming law. The only bill is the Senate Bill.

The only reason the “Fix” bill even goes back to the Senate is to provide cover for Party leaders to say “see, we tried” when they have to explain to their moderates why all those side deals aren’t coming through (not to mention the coming wave of ethics investigations, eg., for the CA water bribes and who knows what else they’re being promised).

I seriously doubt the Reconciliation vote ever happens in the Senate, and if it does, Hatch is absolutely right — this thing willget kicked right back to the house (likely with all kinds of poison pills in it), but not before being dragged out for months (leading up to the election, blue dogs?).

In the meantime, the Senate Bill — warts and all — is the law of the land. How in the world does this make sense if you’re a blue dog/moderate Democrat, regardless of what you’ve been promised in the back room?

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Rules-Committee-meeting-descends-into-chaos-88725962.html

Exactly. Last night I commented that we are now in a chaotic environment. If what we have been witnessing is not chaos, I don’t know what is.

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Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

who struck down the McCain-Feingold provisions would love to give Obama a big FU for his diss as the SOTU.

And isn’t that why Obama canceled his trip, so he’ll be around to sign the bill immediately?

[snark]

Nobody seems to agree exactly what the Slaughter Solution is on one key point, and I think it is an important point?

Is it
a) The reconciliation bill passes, and the Senate Bill is deemed passed at that instant?

OR

b) The reconciliation bill passes, and the Senate Bill is deemed passed once the Senate passes the reconciliation bill?

In other words, does the Self-Executing Rule execute once the House passes the Bill, or once the Senate passes it?

Each way has its own problems, and I have seen people talking about it both ways, but the difference is significant.

I’m hoping the democrats don’t realize this until tomorrow *if* the house bill gets 216 yeahs. : )

Thank you for all your work you’re doing.

Absolutely nothing, by even taking up the Reco bill. The Senate bill will be deemed to have passed, BO will sign it, and the Reco bill joins 289 other bills passed by the House and ignored by the Senate.

This should be obvious to even the dumbest Dem House member (for which honor I nominate Shuler).

Folks, we must keep the pressure on; do not let up for any reason! Here are the Representatives to keep calling, e-mailing, and faxing:

Undecided and voted no on House bill in November (4): Tanner (TN 8), Matheson (UT 2), Nye (VA 2), Baird (WA 3). Tanner and Baird are not running for reelection. Matheson’s brother was recently nominated for a federal judgeship; he appears to have fine credentials.

Undecided and voted yes on the House bill in November (8): Bean (IL 8), Foster (IL 14), Michaud (ME 2), Pomeroy (ND 1), Space (OH 18), Carney (PA 10), Kanjorski (PA 11), Ortiz (TX 27).

Stupak bloc (11): Berry (AR 1), Bishop (GA 2), Lipinski (IL 3), Costello (IL 12), Donnelly (IN 2), Stupak (MI 1), Driehaus (OH 1), Kaptur (OH 9), Dahlkemper (PA 3), Mollohan (WV 1), Rahall (WV 3).

Remember our compatriots on the flight over Pennsylvania on September 11th – they went down STANDING UP! We are Americans. We do not surrender! LET’S ROLL!

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/The-state-of-play-in-the-House-88725462.html#ixzz0ik6Eyp76

per Rules committee. Waxman and Cardoza will vote no on deem and pass so there is some influence there not to use it. 9 Dems, 4 Repubs on Rules committee.

It seems to me that they are right back where they started a couple of weeks ago, before all of this “Slaughter Rule” nonsense began….

I doubt there will be a vote tomorrow, and I don’t see a vote anytime in the near future – I think the whole point of attempting the Slaughter rule in the first place was to get around House Dems having to vote for the Senate bill that all of them hated –

This could be very good news indeed!

Do you really think the senate dems are going to put themselves through six to eight weeks of this worse send this back to the house for them to vote again . My intuition is telling me The Dems are about to abandon this entire sorry mess and blame it all on the “ONE” and Pelosi

I’m not buying this for a second. This is a pure re-branding effort, to help them out when it goes to court. Waxman just let the cat out of the bag about 24 hours too early.

After they tossed the idea for “deem and pass,” they decide to have a vote on the amendments before the house votes on the senate bill.

Aside from a few small mentions, why is there very little talk of the CBO scoring as per Paul Ryan’s request that shows increases to the deficit (as we all know will happen)? Furthermore, Krauthammer and Hayes spoke of additional costs on Fox Thursday evening that have not been revealed yet when it comes to the administrative expenses and so forth to set up all of the excessive bureaucracies and new government agencies to manage this debacle. I am not even sure that there is final CBO scoring other than the estimates that they released the other day. It seems to me that these findings would be huge to continue driving public sentiment as well as to possibly sway some Dems that are still on the fence. I think this message needs to be continued to be pounded over and over. Costs and deficits / costs and deficits.

Major Garret tweeted that in a recent post.

Pelosi doesn’t have the votes.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/

Megan McArdle: “But there is one thing of which I am nearly perfectly certain: If we pass this thing, no American politician, left or right, is going to cut any of these programs, or raise the broad-based taxes necessary to pay for them, without any compensating goodies to offer the public . . . until the crisis is almost upon us. I can think of no situation, other than impending crisis, in which such a thing has been done–and usually, as with Social Security, they have done just little enough to kick the problem down the road. The idea that you pass a program of dubious sustainability because you can always make it sustainable later, seems borderline insane. I can’t think of a single major entitlement that has become more sustainable over time. Why is this one supposed to be different?”

Right wing news has him as a no. Either the votes are there and they are letting them off the hook or perhaps we have some good news.

Still, I don’t think Ellsworth would have been a yes, if they didn’t need him. He is supposed to be there Senate candidate for IN, and with a yes vote. He won’t likely win.

executive order to placate Stupak.

http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0310/Clyburn_Abortion_executive_order_in_the_works.html?showall

to Jim Matheson’s office.

According to FireDog Lake there are 204 yes…205 no…0 lean yes…10 lean no…and 12 undecided. If we hold the leans, Nan’s got to run the table on the undecideds. Matheson is an undecided. He’s from a +15 R district.

Make. Him. Get. Off. The. Fence. Now!!!

The only reason he hasn’t declared is because they don’t want to have to make him vote for this thing. I’ll bet Nancy Pelosi’s botoxed bottom that he’s a yes only if they absolutely need him. Cut down their maneuvering room and get him off the fence.

The crapweasel.

In O’s hands, this really scares me. My understanding is that the Senate bill does have fed funding for abortion. If the House approves that bill, then the funding remains. If O issues an EO stripping the funding, then which hand trumps the other? My poor pathetic brain is frazzled trying to decipher all the shenanigans of these POS’.

redneck_hippie et al.: on this thread of what if it goes back to Senate and starts to get hung up or delayed over there. Here’s another complicating fact for the Dems. If I recall correctly – will stand to be corrected – Harry Reid is not quite the bought and sold captive of NARAL that Nancy is. He is at least on record in a couple of MSM interviews back from the time of his becoming Majority Leader, of nodding to the pro-life side. Has to do with his Nevada base – or what’s left of it. In summary, if this gets over to the Senate, and the abortion issue comes up in amendments, riders, etc., etc., Harry cannot be the hammer Nancy is being with Stupak in the House. There’s not the wiggle room for that issue in the Senate there is in the House. Guess it comes down to how much he wants to try to get re-elected. I have a hard time deciding whether by now he has completely g”Farouk” on that issue like the House Dems, or whether he’s functioning in a delusional state that he’s a sure lock.

executive order from Obama. That probably means Stupak will not buy off on it. It could be a fig leaf to peel away Stupak pro-life members.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez says she’ll vote no. Call and fax her office tomorrow: (202) 225-2965 • Fax: (202) 225-5859

Let’s stay focused like our SEALS (attention to detail) and keep rolling!