Nancy Pelosi heard that the American people want a no-vote on Obamacare, but I think she misunderstood. Instead, she is giving us no vote on Obamacare.
But wait, you ask. How is that constitutional? Don’t the House and Senate have to pass a bill before the President can sign it into law? Yes. So how is Pelosi going to pass the Senate bill without forcing her Democrats to go on the record and vote for it?
What has become known as the Slaughter Solution was not originally designed to be a devious tactic or to push bills through that the party leadership wants but the American people don’t. Originally it was designed as a time saver. The normal process is that the House writes a bill and passes it, the Senate writes their own version and passes it, then they get together and work out their differences. After that the House and Senate put together identical bills based on their conferences and then each pass it again. The Slaughter Solution allowed the House to avoid writing and passing a whole new bill by writing a mix of amendments to the Senate bill and then passing it. Then the Senate passes the House amendments. That way, the House can say the original Senate bill was “deemed to have passed” by passing the amendment package.
Confused? That is what Pelosi is counting on. Pelosi is counting on this because confusion on the Slaughter Solution is the key to her strategy. Discounting the vigilance of the American people, Pelosi’s Slaughter play is pure genius. And it’s not about figuring out how to pass Obamacare without voting on it.
What Pelosi is doing with the Slaughter Solution is giving her Democrats cover to vote for an amendment package that the Senate either cannot or will not pass with reconciliation. While Stupak might see the ruse and refuse to vote for this, it gives the phony pro-life bluedogs exactly the excuse they have been looking for to get back in the Left’s good graces.
Here is how it will go down. The bluedogs and “conservative” Democrats will announce that they are undecided on the Senate version of Obamacare. They will tell their conservative voters that they disapprove of the kickbacks. They will tell their union bosses that they disapprove of the Cadillac tax on high priced insurance polices. They will tell the pro-life majority in our country that they would never approve of taxpayer funding for abortion. And to fix that, they will vote for Pelosi’s reconciliation amendment package.
Pelosi’s amendment package will repeal Ben Nelson’s kickback, it will prohibit any federal funding for abortion and therefore any insurance funding for abortion, it will remove taxes on high price insurance plans, and it will never be passed by the Senate. The Senate cannot use reconciliation to pass a bill with heavy social implications such as banning insurance coverage for abortion. The Senate also cannot use reconciliation to pass a bill that increases the deficit by cutting unpopular taxes. And of course, the Senate cannot pull together the necessary votes if the bill does not include the bribes it took to get Senators like Landrieu and Nelson on board.
Think about it. If the Senate could pass the House amendments through reconciliation or any other means, why don’t they just pass the House bill that is already written? Why amend the Senate bill to look like the House bill and then just pass the amendments? Why would the Senate pass a package containing everything they specifically left out of their bill?
So when the House passes Obamacare with the reconciliation package, and the Senate votes down the reconciliation package, the Senate bill will go to Obama to be signed into law in it’s current form. Abortion will be funded, Senators will get their kickbacks, House Democrats can claim they took a stand against abortion funding and for the unions, and Obama can finally claim the second major policy victory of his Presidency (the stimulus pork bill being the first).
But it gets even better. Harry Reid may decide not to pass the House amendment package through reconciliation. After all, the point is not to pass the House changes. Instead of simply discarding the House amendments and sending the bill as is to the President, Reid may go ahead and push for a normal supermajority vote on the House reconciliation plan. That way Senate Republicans can either give Democrats bi-partisan support of Obamacare by voting for the Pelosi reconciliation package with it’s union favors and higher spending, or they can give Democrats bi-partisan support in voting down the Stupak’s abortion amendment and repeal of the Democrat kickbacks. The Democrats could actually turn the split in their own party into a split in the Republican party; something they haven’t succeeded at yet in this debate.
In the end, for the ignorant and uninformed voting majority of Americans, this strategy is a guaranteed success. The only thing that can stop Pelosi, Reid and Obama now is vigilance and a strong statement from the American people that we know what they are up to. So it comes down to this: if you are not against it, you are for it. Call your Congressman and ask them for a definitive stance on Obamacare. If they say they are not sure, undecided, or would only support it with the reconciliation amendments, call them on it. And a vote for Pelosi’s reconciliation package, no matter how good it sounds, is nothing more than a vote for the Senate version of Obamacare.
Republicans have been played into a corner. Only the American people can stop Obamacare now.
The Conservative Constitutionalist Movement 