Friday, March 19, 2010

LET'S TRAMPLE THE FOUNDATIONS OF LIBERTY!

Article 1, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution states, “Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a Law, be presented to the President of the United States.”

If the House does not have a direct vote on a given piece of legislation, that would be a violation of the explicit language of the Constitution.

According to the Constitution, unless a bill actually has “passed” both Houses, it cannot be presented to the president and cannot become a law.

But congress is poised to circumvent the Constitution.

At the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi's command, New York Democrat Louise Slaughter, who chairs the House Rules Committee, may insert what's known as a "self-executing rule," also known as a "hereby rule."

The term "Slaughter Rule" has nothing to do with killing (although its use on the health care bill might well kill the way the constitution requires laws to be enacted). It is named after the afore mentioned House Rules Committee Chairwoman.

Under this horrible procedural ruse, the House would then vote once on the reconciliation corrections, but not on the underlying Senate bill.

If those reconciliation corrections pass, the self-executing rule would say that the Senate bill is presumptively approved by the House—even without a formal up-or-down vote on the actual words of the Senate bill.

This is called, "deem and pass."

Never before has Congress passed a comprehensive reform bill using this tactic.

You have heard or read: "Republicans have used similar tactics to get bills passed."

You are being lied to.

It is true that, according to the Congressional Research Service, "on August 2, 1989, the House adopted a rule (H.Res. 221) that automatically incorporated into the text of a bill made in order for consideration, a provision that prohibited smoking on domestic airline flights of two hours or less duration.” The legislation to prohibit smoking on domestic flights was made part of another bill, then that other bill received a vote.

This is very different, because the health care reconciliation measure will not be incorporated into the Senate passed version of Obamacare and the reconciliation measure will be sent to the Senate for separate consideration.

The Slaughter solution would allow the House to pass the Senate bill, plus a bill amending it, with a single vote. The senators would then vote only on the amendatory bill.

But this means that no single bill will have passed both houses in the same form.

As the Supreme Court wrote in Clinton v. City of New York (1998), a bill containing the “exact text” must be approved by one house; the other house must approve “precisely the same text.”

So what we have is "the most ethical congress in history" behaving in a most extraordinarily unethical manner to force upon citizens of the U.S. a health care program that they do not want.

Boys and girls, whether you know it or not, if congress succeeds in passing health care legislation in this manner, you will have allowed them to introduce into our legislative process by precedence a procedure that will break the back of liberty and will grant them a power you don't want them to have.

Maybe this congress is so benevolent that we need not fear their having this kind of power (which benevolence I sincerely doubt), but trust me, there will come a congress so committed to their own power that they will use this process to enslave you.

One more chip of your liberty is about to be ground into powder and blown away in the wind.

For more information, click HERE, from whence much of this post was assembled.

h/t to The Heritage Foundation.

9 comments:

Z said...

Joe, SO MANY PEOPLE are upset by this...I haven't ONE PERSON in my LIFe who's said they want this bill to pass. What the HECK's going on?
You know, of course, that if we had an honest mainstream media, this wouldn't be happening; so much of the real obama would have been exposed.
We've been LIED to since he said he didn't know Bill Ayers, but nobody cared...they got our kids through indoctrination in our schools and the Marxist end justifies the Marxist means. :-(

Joe said...

Z: Honest MSM? What an oxymoron! Lies have become truth in the new liberal establishment.

Teresa said...

I am outraged at the blatant corruption of this congress. This is the most unethical congress in history. If this "deem and pass" or Slaughter Rule is used to pass this Bill than we have a shot of the Supreme Court hearing a case of the unconstitutionality of the bill.
Plus, Z's right. The fact that this Congress is directly going against the American people's wishes is despicable and goes against all this country stands for. But, then again, it seems like the congress and the President seems hate all this country stands for-Liberty and Freedom. We must continue the good fight agianst this tyranny.

Joe said...

Teresa: Congress has decided that it no longer serves or cares about the wishes of Americans but only for itself and its power.

Tapline said...

Everyone is talking about the Health care bill...That in itself is bad enough but to also include the Educational bit is just too much. We all know what is happening to public education now the government wants to control what our children learn or major in in their approval of loans. This is too much.....wake up Ameican before it's too late.....say well my friend....and keep vigilant.....

Anonymous said...

"Demon Pass" is more like it, and they are desecrating the Christian Sabbath in the process.

If I may invoke a Mark Steyn phrase, they are soulless tin-eared plonkers.

Tom said...

Yes.. the MSM is a "Liberal conspiracy".. and the DoD lies about VA hospitals.. and global warming is a lie.. and on and on and on.

It's pretty funny actually.

I'd imagine you all would be totally outraged if the Republicans had done it.. and not only that, but if it had been reviewed by a court of law and found to be perfectly within constutional guidelines..

Right?

http://blog.american.com/?p=11467

/que crickets chirping

Oh wait.. I know.. that's all a Liberal conspiracy and a lie as well.

Joe said...

TOM: Hypocrisy: A Parliamentary Procedure
By Norman J. Ornstein

Well, that was certainly a waste of time. The article said almost nothing and did not support what little it DID say.

It was nothing but opinion.

Hey! There's nothing wrong with opinion...everybody has one, and everybody thinks his/hers is right.

That's my opinion.

Tom said...

No, it wasn't an "opinion", but rather documented the fact that Republicans had used such measures before, and that such measure was approved by the judiciary.

I suppose you think there are no such thing as "facts" but simply interpretations of events.

In any event, the health care bill is going to Obamas desk, and they didn't use "deem and pass". It went a straight up and down vote, and the ups won.

I assume you all take back what you said..

right?