Comments on: Deem creep!

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:26:01 +0000

The optics of “deem and pass” are awful, but if that’s the only way, fine. Just. Do. It.

But I’m worried. The CBO says the bill in its current form will cost $940 billion over ten years, but this afternoon I heard Limbaugh says the actual cost was $900 TRILLION.

Who to believe?

By: Brien Jackson

Brien Jackson — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:36:17 +0000

Yes, the “yeas and nays” provision only applies to override votes. Basically it requires that such votes be undertaken by roll call vote, as opposed to voice vote or anything else.

By: Davis

Davis — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:00:49 +0000

Maybe I’m not a typical American citizen, but I really don’t dare how they pass the bill, just as long as it gets done. If it pisses off Limbaugh and the Republicans, all the better. Buy the way, is it really all that certain that it will be a major campaign issue? Republicans are vehemently against it because they know that it will be another popular Democratic program that they opposed. There are many.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:40:33 +0000

I think the “Yeas and Nays” provision in Article I, Section 7 only applies to veto-override votes. Note that Section 5 says that ordinarily the yeas and nays are to be recorded only if 1/5 of the house requests it.

The Senate passes bills by unanimous consent — i.e., no vote at all other than the absence of any Senator objecting — quite frequently.

By: Morbo

Morbo — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:16:56 +0000

Only 49 of them.

By: DrDick

DrDick — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:14:59 +0000

Not to mention, as someone else mentioned elsewhere, the world record for the use of this procedure was set by (drum roll, please) ….. Newt Gingrich.

By: Hogan

Hogan — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:50:41 +0000

“That was my sarcastic voice.”

“It sounds just like your regular voice.”

“I’ve been told that.”

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:20:24 +0000

According to Politifact:

The [self-executing rule] procedure was used 36 times by the House Republican leadership between 2005 and 2006 and 49 times by the Democratic leadership between 2007 and 2008, according to Brookings Institution congressional scholar Thomas Mann writing for Politico.

So were those all unconstitutional as well?

By: Barbara

Barbara — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:39:41 +0000

The Democrats are determining the Rules of House proceedings, a practice the Constitution explicitly outlaws, in Article 1, Section 5: “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings.”
Don’t you mean the Constitution explcitly allows this? If it outlaws it, then what that Dems are doing is unconstitutional, right?