Dems abandon Slaughter plan
Posted by Richard on March 20, 2010
With even some of their supporters criticizing the outrageous and unconstitutional plan to "deem" the Senate health care bill passed without voting on it, House Democrats have backed down and agreed to a vote:
The House Sunday will have to pass a Senate-authored health care bill that many House members don't like. They have crafted a smaller bill that makes changes to the Senate bill, including new language that will exempt labor unions from much of the impact of an excise tax on expensive insurance policies. Democrats wanted to pass the smaller bill and then "deem" the larger, unpopular bill to be passed without ever voting on it directly. But they received considerable backlash, with even Democrats in their own caucus complaining about the tactic.
"We've had sanity prevail here and I'm very pleased about that," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., who is a member of the House Rules Committee, which on Saturday spent hours debating the bill and the process that will be used to consider it.
According to a top Democratic leadership aide, the House will vote on the smaller bill first, then hold an up or down vote on the Senate bill.
The dirty little secret about the "smaller bill that makes changes to the Senate bill" is that it's of no real consequence. If the House passes the Senate bill unchanged, it's been passed by both houses, and the President can (and will) sign it into law in a heartbeat. The bill with the changes will have to go to the Senate. Once their version is signed into law, what incentive do Senate Democrats have to even seriously consider, much less pass, a bill that makes changes they don't want?
Call or email the representatives on this list and tell them that if they're planning to vote for the Senate bill because of the changes being made in the separate House bill, they're fools. Or they think their constituents are.
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