In 2005, congress voted on a bill, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The bill was signed into law in February of 2006. The bill was passed by the senate, but not the house. And yet it is the law of the land. This was the bill that sought to "save" $40 billion over five years (compare that to the $2 trillion tax cuts and the $1.5 trillion federal budget) by cutting medicare, medicaid, welfare and student loan spending. Ultimately it hasn't reduced the deficit. The constitutionality of the law is being challenged in the courts, but we can ll be certain that the corrupted courts will rubberstamp this as they have every other piece of republican despotism.
One of the parts of the bill reduced the amount of time that medicare would pay for durable medical equipment. Such medical equipment included wheelchairs, as well as oxygen equipment (such as CPAP machines). Up until this bill became law, medicare paid for this equipment indefinately. But in an effort to "save" a few billion dollars, republicans decided to limit this to only 36 months.
Originaly, the house voted on this bill, and sent it to the senate. The senate made some changes, and sent it back to the house. When senate clerks were preparing the bill for return to the house, they mistakenly included the 36 month limit, despite the fact that the senate had passed a bill with a 12 month limit. The house voted on the version with the 36 month limit. The bill was returned to the house. Senate clerks discovered the error, and changed the limit back to 12 months. The senate approved the bill (with Dick Cheney having to return from the middle east to cast the tie breaking vote). The bill was then sent to Bush, and signed into law. The version Bush signed was the senate version (with the 12 month limit) and not the house version (with the 36 month limit). The difference between the two is about $2 billion in spending.
Article I, section 7 of the constitution says:
Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States
The requirment for bicameralism in the constitution is very clear. The bill was not passed by the house, and is therefore not law. The fact that the point in question is so draconian (changing a limitless timespan for coverage of life saving equipment to a 12 month limit) is besides the point. The point is that this is GOP despotism.
We can expect the courts to uphold this clearly unconstitutional law. It may be invalidated by the district court, but by the time it reached the appeals court, or the supreme court, it will be declared constitutional. All I can say is, what more can we expect from this depraved party?