Originally published on March 16, 2010 at Yo Mama For Obama
And one more word before I go. For Nancy Pelosi and the Congressional Democrats to use the back-door strategy of "deem and pass" to enact health care is defiantly dishonest, not only to the integrity of our legislative process but also to all Americans. Let me explain.
What this procedural move would entail is not an up or down vote in the House to accept the Senate’s version of HCR. Instead, this self-executing rule would allow the House to vote on specific additions to the bill having "deemed" that the bill passed in the first place. Guess what? The HCR bill never passed. It is a downright lie to use this strategy as the premise for enacting health care reform.
Moreover, basing this new law on a lie might prove unconstitutional. I do not doubt for a moment that, should the proponents of this bill ram through its passage by "deem and pass", its opponents will head straight for the Supreme Court for their decision on its constitutional validity. So after giving false hope to our people, i.e. that there will no longer be pre-existing conditions or lifetime caps on health insurance and that even if one loses his job he may still keep his insurance, then this pseudo-bill hits the Supremes and could very well be judged null and void. I doubt that even the most liberal Supreme Court Justices would validate HCR based on the fictitious principle of "deem and pass".
This procedural tactic would be a huge mistake and do a further disservice to our legal government framework and the temperament of the people. How in all Tarnation can HCR be "deemed" to pass when the objective of such a tactic is based on the outright fact that there are not enough votes to pass it? A lie is a lie, whether it is propagated by the Republicans or the Democrats. Also, this strategy is toying with the public’s expectations. How could this Congress invoke "deem and pass", get the population’s hopes up and then, if and when this item appears before the highest court in the land (and it will), subject our nation to a crushing defeat if the Court judges this bill as unconstitutional?
"Deem and pass" is not the solution to what ails us. It is merely a tricky ploy to pass HCR. We all want decent and affordable health care options. However, to give us HCR based on a blatant lie, to present the public with HCR that might only have a life of a month before the Supremes kill it, is the worst kind of governing that I have seen yet. This devious strategy would only add insult to injury in our nation’s quest for health care.
Give it up. We either have the votes or we don’t. Such is life. If we wind up using dishonest tactics to pass this bill, the bill itself becomes suspect. Regarding HCR, "deem and pass" is a lie. Thus, any health care policy that results from "deem and pass" will also be a lie, detrimental to our nation and its people.
Nothing from nothing is nothing. It is so deemed.
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