With the final showdown over the health-care bill looming, House Democratic leaders say they're considering using an arcane parliamentary shortcut that would avoid a direct vote on the Senate version of the bill, a version many Democratic representatives don't like. Instead, the House would take up a "budget reconciliation" bill containing changes, and, if that were to pass, the Senate bill would be "deemed passed," too. Is this "a sneaky snake oil gimmick," as one Republican complained, or just smart politics? (Watch Rep. James Clyburn defend "deem and pass")
The Democrats are trashing democracy: "This two-votes-in-one gambit is a brazen affront to the plain language of the Constitution, which is intended to require democratic accountability," say the editors of The Wall Street Journal. This shocking procedural "ruse" is intended to let Democrats approve the "special-interest bribes" in the Senate bill, while insisting they opposed them. That's wrong.
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