From The Washington Post:
By Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane"I voted for it before I didn't vote at all... so don't blame me if you don't like the bill." - Nancy Pelosi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it.
Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers "deem" the health-care bill to be passed.
The tactic -- known as a "self-executing rule" or a "deem and pass" -- has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.
"It's more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know," the speaker said in a roundtable discussion with bloggers Monday. "But I like it," she said, "because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill."
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Democrats, the people voted for you before they never voted for you again... so don't blame the people if you are not elected again.Let's see what the Supremes have to say about this. Will that Latina experience clarify it for all of us?