'This makes Watergate look like Romper Room'
By Joe
Kovacs
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is accused of using legislative trickery to push through health-care reform. |
America's system of government based on the U.S. Constitution is
being overthrown through illegal legislative "trickery" Congress is
using to pass controversial health-care reform.
That's the conclusion of some on the political right who are
calling for the impeachment of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi along
with the defeat of the health legislation.
"This is the overthrow of the U.S. constitutional system,
orchestrated from the White House through the House of Representatives,
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid," said
radio host Rush Limbaugh today. "This is beyond rational
explanation and description. This makes Watergate look like Romper
Room."
At issue is the possibility that reforms pushed by President
Obama and other Democrats will be approved without ever actually having a
direct vote, but could be "deemed" to have been passed, then signed
into law by Obama. The process is called the "Slaughter
Strategy," named for Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., who chairs the
House Rules Committee.
Discussing
the need for this procedure, Pelosi
said: "I like it, because people don't have to vote on the Senate
bill."
Indeed, Democrats could actually vote for the rule, yet still
claim they're against the Senate bill.
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., agrees with Limbaugh that
the "deem and pass" method is ludicrous and worthy of impeachment.
"The other thing is treason media," Bachmann
told radio host Sean Hannity. "Where is the mainstream media in all
of this not telling this story? This is a compelling story, that the
speaker of the House would even consider having us pass a bill that no
one votes on? That should laugh her out of the House and there should be
people that are calling for impeachment off of something like this.
That's how bad this is. I mean, trust me. Dennis Hastert could have
never gotten away with this. President Bush never could have gotten away
with it."
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said, "In our lifetime,
this is the most undemocratic, un-American step that we'll have ever
seen our Congress take. It's appalling. It takes my breath away that
they would think that this is OK to do. But again, we can't feign
surprise. Remember this is what Barack Obama had promised in the
campaign. He said as a candidate that he was just days away from
beginning the transformation of America."
In a commentary posted
at Carolina
Journal, John Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation, said
he's simply not going to comply with the legislation if it's not
properly voted on:
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not planning
to recognize such a result as legally binding. I'm not going to pretend
to obey any dictates from federal health-care bureaucrats that have
never been authorized by a constitutional vote of both houses of
Congress. I will not submit to any extra-constitutional order to
dismantle the consumer-driven health plan I have set up for my
employees.I will not comply. If the government tries to make me comply, I'll
sue. And I'll win.This is not (yet) a banana republic where constitutions are seen
as inconvenient impediments to the rule of the despot. This is not (yet)
a European-style welfare state where some powerful parliament can
exercise legislative, executive, and judicial power all in one stroke.
Limbaugh expounded on the "deem and pass" procedure the House is
considering, saying, "The word 'deemed' means what? It means pretend!"
"Maybe we can just deem our tax returns to have been
filed. But we don't actually file 'em. We just deem our taxes
to have been paid. We just deem it! I mean, if they can deem
to have passed laws, we can certainly say that we are 'deemed' to have
complied with them."
The Wall
Street Journal noted the "deeming" procedure is unprecedented,
since Congress has never before passed a comprehensive reform bill using
the method.
According to the Constitution itself, "Every Bill
which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate,
shall, before it becomes a Law, be presented to the President of the
United States."
In an interview with Bret Baier of Fox News today,
President Obama indicated he did not have a problem with the "deem and
pass" method, and said, "By the time the vote has taken place, not only I
will know what's in it, you'll know what's in it because it's going to
be posted and everybody is going to be able to evaluate it on the
merits."
Former Clinton adviser Dick Morris told Fox anchor Bill
O'Reilly the Slaughter tactic is "a ruse that is gonna fall apart of its
own weight. People are massing against it as they see how phony it is."
He
said it was based on the "ridiculous assumption" the public won't know a
vote for the rule is actually a vote for the health-care bill.
O'Reilly
agreed, noting, "This sneaky 'deem' deal isn't going to happen because
the folks will not tolerate it."
The controversy is inciting
plenty of comments on Internet messageboards, including:
- "The enactment of Obamacare by a budgetary 'reconciliation'
process in the Senate and by the 'Slaughter' process in the House makes
the U.S. Congress a parliament of whores. I blame the San Francisco
Democrats headed by Pelosi and Reid as well as Obama, who hails from the
bowels of the Chicago political machine as the culprits responsible for
tearing apart the U.S. Constitution in order for them to put into place
their socialist, borderline fascist agenda. For the first time, I fear
for my country."
- "Appears constitutional to me. Now that Democrats are
in the majority, [Republicans] seem to respond in a negative way to
every proposal recommended. Health-care reform is needed in this country
now. … Stop griping."
- "If this unconstitutional move gets pushed through,
there needs to be an organized effort to impeach both Nancy Pelosi and
President Obama for not standing by their swearing in pledge to 'uphold
the Constitution of the United States.' We must hold Congress and those
that represent the people accountable for their actions, and the action
needs to be immediate!"
- "It appears we are headed full-circle back to taxation
without representation. Does anyone remember how that turned out the
first time?"
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