Posted on Monday, 5th October 2009 by Bruce
On her WIBA-AM radio program in Madison this afternoon, host Vicki McKenna had an outstanding exchange with The Heritage Foundation’s Brian Darling.
In the discussion, which you can hear via podcast at this link (courtesy of WIBA, the segment starts at about 18:30), Darling speculates that ObamaCare health care “reform” legislation could be on the president’s desk for a signature as early as November 1, 2009. Darling believes that the Democrats will accomplish this using an obscure and confusing tactic, passing what he and others are referring to as a “vapor bill” – that is, essentially, a description of proposed legislation, but not the actual bill – in the Senate Finance Committee, only to have the actual language of ObamaCare, an amalgamation of existing health care “reform” proposals, dropped into existing legislation as an 1100 page “amendment.”
Darling further explains the concept in a posting at THF’s blog, The Foundry.
“The AP reports that “first the Finance Committee bill must be combined with a more liberal version that the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee wrapped up this summer. This merger is so rare that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has never attempted it on any piece of legislation — much less one as complex as President Barack Obama’s top legislative priority.
This process is far different than the way you learned in 9th grade civics class how a bill becomes law. Nowhere in that class were you told that a bill passes one committee (Senate HELP) and a description of a bill passes another Committee (Senate Finance), then the Senate Majority Leader writes his own bill without a transparent means for all Senators and the American people to participate in the process. Maybe there are no smoke filled rooms anymore in the Capitol, yet in these latte filled rooms this week, Senate leaders, emissaries of the Obama Administration, maybe a lobbyist or two and some select staff are writing Obamacare.
Why can’t we read the bill? Any Senator has the power to request that the Senate Clerk read any legislation. That may be the only means for the American people to understand what is actually in the bill.”
Posted in Home | Comments (6)
6 Responses to “Is this how ObamaCare – language yet to be determined – gets rammed down your throats?”
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October 6th, 2009 at 5:34 am
a description of proposed legislation, but not the actual bill
How is that even legal?
October 6th, 2009 at 6:12 am
Heather, those are the long-standing rules of the Senate Finance Committee. It was true under Republican control as well as Democratic control. But it’s only that committee.
As for the rest of this, the problem is that the House doesn’t work that way at all. Any bill coming out of the House, whether on its first vote or on a reconciled vote with the Senate, must be legislative language, not the Senate Finance Committee’s language. No bill will hit Obama’s desk without having been fully fleshed out, posted online, and voted for by the House–in that order.
October 6th, 2009 at 11:35 am
No bill will hit Obama’s desk without having been fully fleshed out, posted online, and voted for by the House–in that order.
No offense, but we’ve heard that before, and it was a lie then.
October 6th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Defender of the Cult Jay Bullock busted in yet another lie:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Congressional-leaders-fight-against-posting-bills-online-8340658-63557217.html
October 6th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
No offense, but we’ve heard that before, and it was a lie then.
Yeah. Bills were supposed to be available online, this was going to be the most transparent administration ever…yadda, yadda, yadda.
I don’t believe a word of it, because it’s all lies.
October 6th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
on another thread I proposed that crumbum be flogged for every lie he tells in public. Jay, you now are owed 1 flogging.