OK, you may have heard rumors that Republicans are considering holding a vote on their debt ceiling plan, and then leaving town.
Well, it turns out that Barack Obama can use his Article II powers to deal with this:
uesday morning, the National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru reported that House Republicans “may pass” their proposal to end the shutdown, prevent default and exact certain concessions from Democrats, “and then skip town.” The implicit threat being that President Obama and the Senate could either take what the House Republican caucus is offering, or they can watch the American economy tumble into the chaos of a debt default.
Such a gambit, however, is unlikely to succeed — at least if the House GOP’s goal is to be far away from Washington when the bottom falls out. The Constitution gives President Obama a way to reconvene Congress, and the House rules enable Leader Nancy Pelosi’s caucus to bring Republicans back to the Capitol to do their job.
Under Article II of the Constitution, the President of the United States “may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them.” Thus, even if Speaker John Boehner managed to adjourn the House and hop on a flight to Ohio, President Obama could summon him back to DC.
The Constitution’s text places few, if any, textual constraints on this power to convene Congress, and there is at least some precedent suggesting that the president can choose the specific date when Congress should reconvene. When President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the Congress back into session on March 5, 1933, he required “the Congress of the United States to convene in extra session at the Capitol in the City of Washington on the Ninth day of March, 1933, at twelve o’clock, noon.” If House Republicans closed down shop at 11pm on Tuesday, there’s nothing in the Constitution suggesting President Obama couldn’t order them back to work at 11:01.
Of course, House Republicans are nothing if not prone to defy this President, but the House rules account for the very circumstance where lawmakers try to prevent the lower house of Congress from operating by refusing to show up to work. Under those rules, “[i]n the absence of a quorum, a majority comprising at least 15 Members . . . may compel the attendance of absent members.” Once such a vote takes place, the House Sergeant-at-Arms may send officers “to arrest those Members for whom no sufficient excuse is made and shall secure and retain their attendance.” So if House Republicans try to flee town, they can be kept at work by force of law.
OK, here is where my fantasy gets perverted, twisted and disgusting:
- Boehner votes, and leaves town.
- Obama invokes Article II
- US Marshalls start dragging back Teapublicans in chains.
Assuming that you can get 190 of the Democratic members back, once you get 28 of the Republicans on the floor, you have quorum.
With 190 Democrats, and 28 Republicans, you can pass anything you want until enough Republicans return to Congress.
Of course, this might be difficult, because, in my fantasy, this is where it gets kinky:
All Republican members of Congress have been placed on the no-fly list.
I am thoroughly debauched.