We hear screaming today because the Health Care bill is supposedly going to pass without an actual vote!, at least according to the learned headline writers on the Washington Post and AP. David Waldman's post does a good job of showing that this is a crock, rebutting charges that the bill will not be passed, as Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution provides, by both Houses in the same form.
While this charge is false, there was no similar uproar when in 2005, Bush signed into a law a bill that without question was passed only by the Senate.
Yes, remember the 2005 "Deficit Reduction Act?" As a result of a clerical error, this substantial piece of legislation was enacted into law even though the Senate version differed from the House by $2 billion. You don't have to be a former social studies teacher (like me) to know that identical versions of a bill must be passed in both houses. (Added bonus -- the 2005 bill included Medicare cuts, something Republicans are now appalled about).
John Conyers and 10 other Representatives sued:
No one in the House of Representatives voted on the version of the bill which was signed into law. The Senate version was never presented in the House for a vote. .... The Deficit Reduction Act needed to be passed by the House of Representatives in the same form that it passed the Senate. The Act never did and thus the Act is not valid. A law is not validly enacted if even "one of paragraph of that text" is different.
but the Courts never reached the issue because the House Members were deemed to lack standing to bring the lawsuit.
So here we have yet another great example of IOKYAR --
Republicans get away with a blatant Constitutional violation, while Democrats are falsely accused when they simply follow the rules.
The liberal media strikes again.