Demon Pass and Reconciliation - Total Health Care Chaos in Congress - Who is the Fool?

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Okay, yesterday Nancy Pelosi finally posted the Obama health care demon pass rule or whatever the heck it is since it is not a bill that was approved by congress. It is a rather odd demon pass rule in the House that no two people in Washington explain in the same way, and it is also a reconciliation procedure in the Senate yet somehow it morphs into a bill.

The report from the Congressional Budget Office is in and they claim if we spend about a trillion dollars the first ten years we will reduce the deficit by around $134 billion. Then after ten more years we will save another $1.2 trillion. Strange math I think.



If you look at the fine print in the CBO instructions it may very well say the savings are not savings at all but a reduction in future increases, a technique congress has used often to confuse the public. Well a reduction in future increases is no savings and I don't care what school of economics you attended.

Now the financing of the first trillion dollars comes from increased taxes, a $500 billion reduction in Medicaid, taxes on a whole bunch of health expenses like wheel chairs, and who knows what else. I don't remember Obama promising to do any of those things during the campaign and debate over the bill.



Some of the bill does not even start until 2014 so don't expect overnight results. And those promised reductions in health care premiums, don't count on them either. As for punishing the insurance industry, don't you find it odd that with all their billions of dollars there is no evidence of lobbying against the bill or running commercials opposing the bill by those insurers? Wouldn't you think they would be fighting it tooth and nail if they were going to be disemboweled by it as Obama claims?

Fact is as the final action neared those devils on Wall Street, the ones who finance those bad insurance companies while taking million dollar bonuses, have not been driving down the stock market prices but have actually had eight straight days of driving up the market. Yet another sign the big, bad, rich guys are for the bill, not opposed. There is even an internal method to poll Wall Street which shows according to MSNBC the bet on Wall Street is 80% believe it will be approved.



So Wall Street, Obama and Pelosi agree it is best for America. Now we find out if the Democrats in the House first, and Senate second, agree. We know the Republicans oppose it and it seems as if the public is split or a majority oppose it.

Sunday just after 2 pm the House, under Pelosi, will take up the demon pass rule in order to avoid voting on the Senate bill which somehow they think will protect Democrats from being defeated in the elections this fall. Of course demon pass has never been used for this purpose. Then there will be a vote on the changes that Obama and the House want to the Senate bill which has not been approved by the House yet.



Nor will it ever be thanks to the Pelosi and Steny Hoyer rules that will be applied. So 216 votes are needed and it could be a cliffhanger. If they get them the bill thing then goes to the Senate because the House has now changed the Senate bill without voting on it and the Senate must agree to the changes to their bill that wasn't voted on. Still following me?

Now here is one thing the media, president and Pelosi are not talking about. You see, under the reconciliation procedure being used by good old Harry Reid and Obama in the Senate, every single proposal in the House bill must be directly related to the federal deficit or budget process. A Senate parliamentarian must rule on each section. There is no guarantee every section will meet the budget rule and if the Senate refuses to agree with any part of the bill, whoops, it goes back to the House for another round.



No matter what the White House and Democratic leaders say, there have never been votes on such broad bills like the health care reform bill using either the House demon pass rule or the Senate reconciliation procedure. That means it could also be subject to a Constitutional challenge. Add another year to the process for the courts to act.

The House will act on Sunday, but if the bill slips through don't start celebrating yet. It could take a week or more for the Senate to act. If they disagree on any part of it add a few more months. If they agree then we still have the court challenges. And even if we don't have court challenges remember much of the bill does not start until 2014.



Now if you understood everything I just said you should be running for president or moving to South America. If you could explain it, and remember, each thing I said is contested by either the Democrats or Republicans, then you are a better communicator than our president, congress and media.

So in summary, take every step the rest of the way with a grain of salt. No one really knows if it will add to our deficit or reduce it. Based on past government projections and promises, don't count on it reducing the national debt, reducing your health insurance premiums or get you better, if any, health care.



If the timing works out, the Senate could be voting about the same night NCAA March Madness ends with the National Championship game on April 5. Let's hope it doesn't end on April 1, April Fool's Day, because of the chaos node we are in we will have no idea who got fooled. Is it the president, congress, the Democrats, the Republicans, the public, the media or Wall Street who will be the biggest fool?

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Pelosi "Demon Pass" Strategy - Yet another Obama assault on the Constitution

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Now that it is crunch time for counting votes on health care, and after Obama has kept Ohio under siege with his flurry of recent visits to friendly audiences in order to threaten Ohio congressmen, we find out that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has now come up with yet another procedural manipulation called the "deem and pass" procedure to circumvent the Constitution and force legislation through the House with no vote on the Senate Health reform bill.

This procedure has never been used for major legislation nor was it ever intended to be used for that purpose. Therefore, what Pelosi proposes, that the House only vote for fixes to the Senate bill while never voting on the Senate bill itself, is comparable to going to war with no war resolution approved by the Congress. Pure and simple, it is Constitutionally illegal.



Pelosi does not have the votes for a legitimate vote even though the Democrats control Congress by a huge majority. That much is obvious or she would not be proposing a procedure that is certain to assure her a spot in the history books, as the first Speaker of the House to flaunt a disregard for the US Constitution in the interest of partisan politics and because she is incapable of leading her own majority.

If her own Democrats will not give her the votes to pass the proposed Senate Health Care Reform kickback program, approving minor amendments while declaring the Senate bill deemed and passed with no vote is sheer insanity and will be an issue before the Supreme Court long before it can ever be implemented.



Pelosi and Obama are counting on a really stupid public to not understand the shell game that was just played on them with this Pelosi demon pass procedure and expect us to rollover and accept a monstrous bill full of secret deals, campaign payoffs, White House deals with the SEIU union bosses and the dreaded pharmaceutical companies, and who knows what else, because of all the lies we have heard on health care, claims that the process was transparent when secrecy dominated the process is the most arrogant and deceitful slap in the face of the public we have heard.

Well if Pelosi resorts to the demon pass rule of stealing our Constitutional process then Pelosi is not fit to serve as Speaker of the House because her own oath of office said she was to protect the Constitution, not undermine it with procedural gimmicks. And our president, proud of his status as a Constitutional Lawyer from Harvard of the Ivy League, had better start telling us what Constitution he took an oath to defend.



He has endorsed a procedural trick to circumvent the Senate with reconciliation, he has embarrassed the Supreme Court in front of the world, and now he is backing a procedural trick to circumvent the House. Is he trying to work in a bi-partisan matter as he promised or to undermine every separate branch of government, the Legislature and Judiciary, that won't do what he wants? This is sheer insanity.

Every ounce of energy and every bit of the attention of our president and White House is focused on this garbled health care reform bill and it has been the entire last year. Forget about jobs, unemployment, wars, crumbling foreign relations, drug wars spilling over the American borders, non-prosecution of the thieves on Wall Street, cover ups for the legislative and regulatory actions that led to the collapse of our economy, forget about everything that is important to Americans.



There are far better ways to fix health care than the conglomeration of secret deals and payoffs about to be shoved down our throats. It makes one wonder, what is really in the bill that makes it more important to the president and Democratic congressional leaders than any other problems, issues or priorities including the economy. What is in the bill that has caused such panic over not having the votes that they risk rules and procedures never intended for the purpose, and in the case of the Pelosi demon pass procedure, has never even been used for that purpose.

Is it so important to pass anything no matter what the cost, ramifications or even potential for helping with health care. It leads me to think we have still not been told all the secret deals made to get this bill passed and we are yet to know the real purpose for the bill. If it was just about fixing health care and lowering costs no one would object and legislative tricks would not be necessary.



Maybe in the interests of transparency President Obama and Speaker Pelosi could tell us the truth, why is this bill so important, what is in the bill they have not disclosed, and is it worth the challenges to the Constitutional foundation of our nation. Who did you promise and what did you promise to make this bill supersede everything our government has done for the last year. Transparency also means truth. It is time to put truth in the discussion.

Enough Washington, get the dirty deed done. We the people will deal with the consequences. Fix the real problems we face with the economy, unemployment, corruption, kickbacks, foreign affairs mess, coddling of Wall Street and lack of campaign reform . Admit whatever you do on health care will not happen for several more years and get on with the business of governing.

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