Senator Reid reminiscent of the empire builders of Las Vegas in his native state of Nevada, Reid is going to make America " A DEAL IT CAN'T REFUSE" by using the tactic's of "the mob of old" and shove a healthcare bill down Americans throat like it or not, by using coercion, thuggery,chicanery and a little parliamentary maneuver known as "Reconciliation". With the help of "The New Mob" the Democratic controlled U.S. Senate duly elected to represent the people and not to acquiesce to the strong arm tactics of the BULLY from Nevada. Americans may get a healthcare bill that hasn't been read, that they don't want and can't afford. So much, for representing ,"WE THE PEOPLE."
Reign of Political Thuggery To Pass ObamaCare Senator Harry Reid has put the American people on notice that if the Republican Party does not capitulate and acquiesce to some version of ObamaCare, he will act like a thug and jam it down their throats. Senator Reid threatens to tie dissenting Senators' hands behind their backswith procedural restrictions on amendments, gag them with strict limits on debate and pummel the long tradition of minority rights in the U.S. Senate by ramming ObamaCare through the Senate with a bare majority or even with fewer than a minimum 51 votes of sitting Senators if necessary by having Vice President Biden break a 50-50 tie.
The parliamentary maneuver Senator Reid would use to pass ObamaCare by less than a majority vote of sitting Senators is known as "Reconciliation." Reconciliation is an extraordinary budgetary procedure designed exclusively to ensure passage of an annual budget and avoid a stalemate leading to a complete shutdown of the federal government. It was NOT designed and NEVER intended to circumvent Senate procedure to ram through controversial and far-reaching legislation such as healthcare "reform."
Democratic Senator Robert C. Byrd, one of the authors of the Reconciliation procedure and foremost authority on the history of Senate rules and procedure describes what happens under Reconciliation this way: "Under reconciliation's gag rule there are twenty hours of debate or less if time is yielded back, and little or no opportunity to amend."
THIS IS POLITICAL THUGGERY-political assault and battery upon the American People pure and simple. Senator Byrd best expresses why using Reconciliation to jam ObamaCare down America's throat degrades the U.S. Senate and violates the spirit of our system of checks and balances:
"Using reconciliation to ram through complicated, far-reaching legislation is an abuse of the budget process. . .With critical matters such as a massive revamping of our health care system which will impact the lives of every citizen of our great land, the Senate has a duty to debate and amend and explain in the full light of day, however long that may take, what it is we propose, and why we propose it. . .We must not run roughshod over minority views. A minority can be right. . . Ramrodding and railroading have no place when it comes to such matters as our people's healthcare." That is why Senator Byrd says, "I cannot, and I will not, vote to authorize the use of the reconciliation process to expedite passage of health care reform legislation."
What Majority Leader Reid is hiding from the American public is the fact that a huge bipartisan majority of Senators agreed with Senator Byrd, when they were writing this year's budget resolution back in April, that Reconciliation should not be used to railroad ObamaCare through the Senate.
During deliberations on the Senate Budget Resolution earlier this year, Senator Jim DeMint introduced a point-of-order amendment that would require a 60-vote majority to pass "any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report that eliminates the ability of Americans to keep their health plan or their choice of doctor (as determined by the Congressional Budget Office)." The Senate approved the DeMint Amendment unanimously.
Subsequently, before the Senate Budget Resolution went to a Conference Committee where differences with the House Budget Resolution were to be worked out, DeMint offered a motion to instruct the Senate Conferees not only to insist on retaining the 60-vote provision in the final Conference Report but also to widen the scope of the provision to cover any provision and so forth that decreases the number of Americans enrolled in private health insurance while increasing the number enrolled in government-managed, rationed health care. The DeMint motion to instruct conferees to insist on the 60-vote requirement for healthcare passed the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 79 to 14.
As a matter of congressional comity, the House ordinarily would have been expected to accede to the Senate provision since it affected Senate rules that applied only to the Senate. But mysteriously the 60-vote rule was stripped from the resolution in the dead of night, behind closed doors and out of sight of the rest of the Senate and the American People.
Remarkably, Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, must have fallen asleep during the Conference Committee meeting because he allowed the Demint 60-vote requirement to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference.Now, Senator Reid stands on the flimsy excuse that the DeMint amendments are irrelevant because they were not in the final Budget Resolution Conference Report. But make no mistake, the 60-vote requirement-which was TWICE voted for by huge, bipartisan majorities in the Senate and did not affect the House-wasn't in the final Budget Resolution Conference Report ONLY because Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad thumbed his nose at three fourths of his colleagues and took it upon himself contrary to the will of the Senate to unceremoniously strip their 60-vote rule out of the Conference Report. With one-sixth of the U.S. economy at stake, the Senate should insist upon abiding by its own rule, which it TWICE adopted by overwhelming bipartisan votes. Why would Senator Reid insist upon using a provision the Senate TWICE agreed should NOT be used because they knew that it isn't right to pass a bill that divides the nation into feuding factions by a slim 50 votes?
Harry Reid's argument that he is justified in jamming ObamaCare down America's throat because there is no rule against it-actually because one rogue Senator took it upon himself to reverse the will and judgment of the entire Senate and eliminate a rule Senators thought was right and appropriate-is the pure sophistry of a tyrant.
The question is, what justifies the Senate in violating its own cherished norms and traditions? Why does Senator Reid refuse to abide by the 60-vote rule on healthcare the Senate TWICE voted to impose on itself by huge bipartisan majorities? Why does Senator Reid ignore the authoritative judgment of fellow Democrat Robert Byrd that it would be wrong, wrong, wrong to steamroller ObamaCare through the Senate under Reconciliation? The National Obamacare OptOut ….http://www.patientoptout.com
Reign of Political Thuggery To Pass ObamaCare Senator Harry Reid has put the American people on notice that if the Republican Party does not capitulate and acquiesce to some version of ObamaCare, he will act like a thug and jam it down their throats. Senator Reid threatens to tie dissenting Senators' hands behind their backswith procedural restrictions on amendments, gag them with strict limits on debate and pummel the long tradition of minority rights in the U.S. Senate by ramming ObamaCare through the Senate with a bare majority or even with fewer than a minimum 51 votes of sitting Senators if necessary by having Vice President Biden break a 50-50 tie.
The parliamentary maneuver Senator Reid would use to pass ObamaCare by less than a majority vote of sitting Senators is known as "Reconciliation." Reconciliation is an extraordinary budgetary procedure designed exclusively to ensure passage of an annual budget and avoid a stalemate leading to a complete shutdown of the federal government. It was NOT designed and NEVER intended to circumvent Senate procedure to ram through controversial and far-reaching legislation such as healthcare "reform."
Democratic Senator Robert C. Byrd, one of the authors of the Reconciliation procedure and foremost authority on the history of Senate rules and procedure describes what happens under Reconciliation this way: "Under reconciliation's gag rule there are twenty hours of debate or less if time is yielded back, and little or no opportunity to amend."
THIS IS POLITICAL THUGGERY-political assault and battery upon the American People pure and simple. Senator Byrd best expresses why using Reconciliation to jam ObamaCare down America's throat degrades the U.S. Senate and violates the spirit of our system of checks and balances:
"Using reconciliation to ram through complicated, far-reaching legislation is an abuse of the budget process. . .With critical matters such as a massive revamping of our health care system which will impact the lives of every citizen of our great land, the Senate has a duty to debate and amend and explain in the full light of day, however long that may take, what it is we propose, and why we propose it. . .We must not run roughshod over minority views. A minority can be right. . . Ramrodding and railroading have no place when it comes to such matters as our people's healthcare." That is why Senator Byrd says, "I cannot, and I will not, vote to authorize the use of the reconciliation process to expedite passage of health care reform legislation."
What Majority Leader Reid is hiding from the American public is the fact that a huge bipartisan majority of Senators agreed with Senator Byrd, when they were writing this year's budget resolution back in April, that Reconciliation should not be used to railroad ObamaCare through the Senate.
During deliberations on the Senate Budget Resolution earlier this year, Senator Jim DeMint introduced a point-of-order amendment that would require a 60-vote majority to pass "any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report that eliminates the ability of Americans to keep their health plan or their choice of doctor (as determined by the Congressional Budget Office)." The Senate approved the DeMint Amendment unanimously.
Subsequently, before the Senate Budget Resolution went to a Conference Committee where differences with the House Budget Resolution were to be worked out, DeMint offered a motion to instruct the Senate Conferees not only to insist on retaining the 60-vote provision in the final Conference Report but also to widen the scope of the provision to cover any provision and so forth that decreases the number of Americans enrolled in private health insurance while increasing the number enrolled in government-managed, rationed health care. The DeMint motion to instruct conferees to insist on the 60-vote requirement for healthcare passed the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 79 to 14.
As a matter of congressional comity, the House ordinarily would have been expected to accede to the Senate provision since it affected Senate rules that applied only to the Senate. But mysteriously the 60-vote rule was stripped from the resolution in the dead of night, behind closed doors and out of sight of the rest of the Senate and the American People.
Remarkably, Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, must have fallen asleep during the Conference Committee meeting because he allowed the Demint 60-vote requirement to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference.Now, Senator Reid stands on the flimsy excuse that the DeMint amendments are irrelevant because they were not in the final Budget Resolution Conference Report. But make no mistake, the 60-vote requirement-which was TWICE voted for by huge, bipartisan majorities in the Senate and did not affect the House-wasn't in the final Budget Resolution Conference Report ONLY because Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad thumbed his nose at three fourths of his colleagues and took it upon himself contrary to the will of the Senate to unceremoniously strip their 60-vote rule out of the Conference Report. With one-sixth of the U.S. economy at stake, the Senate should insist upon abiding by its own rule, which it TWICE adopted by overwhelming bipartisan votes. Why would Senator Reid insist upon using a provision the Senate TWICE agreed should NOT be used because they knew that it isn't right to pass a bill that divides the nation into feuding factions by a slim 50 votes?
Harry Reid's argument that he is justified in jamming ObamaCare down America's throat because there is no rule against it-actually because one rogue Senator took it upon himself to reverse the will and judgment of the entire Senate and eliminate a rule Senators thought was right and appropriate-is the pure sophistry of a tyrant.
The question is, what justifies the Senate in violating its own cherished norms and traditions? Why does Senator Reid refuse to abide by the 60-vote rule on healthcare the Senate TWICE voted to impose on itself by huge bipartisan majorities? Why does Senator Reid ignore the authoritative judgment of fellow Democrat Robert Byrd that it would be wrong, wrong, wrong to steamroller ObamaCare through the Senate under Reconciliation? The National Obamacare OptOut ….http://www.patientoptout.com
