Recent Articles

Constitution Slaughters The Slaughter Solution

By now anyone with a head and who is not trying to rewrite history over this issue knows that the Democrats are working full speed ahead to pass unpopular legislation in order to take control of our lives by controlling our health care. They want to vote for Obama’s signature legislative item but they are worried about the ramifications of passing unpopular legislation especially in an election year.

It is a double edged sword because they need to pass it now because they will lose too many seats to pass it next year. But if they pass it now they will lose even more seats and Obama will have no future agenda because Republicans will not allow anything he wants to pass. It won’t get considered. This will be the price for ramming legislation through without following the Constitution. I bet then we hear Democrats scream about being left out of the process and how ham handed the Republicans are.

Anyone who complains should be locked in the basement so we do not have to hear them again. This would include Obama.

The most recent idea coming from Democrats is to consider a bill voted on and passed if another piece of legislation is passed. This is a way to avoid voting on the unpopular bill but getting what they want passed.

In the Slaughter Solution, the rule would declare that the House “deems” the Senate version of Obamacare to have been passed by the House. House members would still have to vote on whether to accept the rule, but they would then be able to say they only voted for a rule, not for the bill itself.

Thus, Slaughter is preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill “passed” once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes. Democrats would thereby avoid a direct vote on the health care bill while allowing it to become law! Doug Ross

According to Constitutional Attorney Mark R Levin, this rule is unconstitutional. The House and Senate must vote on a bill and it must be sent to the president to be signed into law. So far, so good because they are voting on a bill but they are not voting on the bill that will become law and they are not voting in accordance with the Constitution:

U.S Constitution, Article I, Section VII, Clause II.

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively… [emphasis added]

In ALL cases the bills shall be voted on by Yeahs and Nays. They cannot vote on one rule change and say it means they voted on another bill. Every BILL (singular) must be voted on with yeahs and nays. Our Founders set this up for a reason.

Of course the Constitutionality of something has never stopped Democrats from doing what they wanted but I am pretty sure there will be a lot of legal challenges to any process that does not follow the Constitution and the legal process in accordance with the law.

Note to Democrats, just because you change the rules does not mean the rules adopted are Constitutional.

Here is a link to the US Constitution for those who are challenged in this area. It would be particularly nice if Politicians read this.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out because the left is worried about the interpretation of the Senate Parliamentarian when it should be worried about the Constitution.

Can they use reconciliation to fix a bill that has not been agreed upon by both chambers? Don’t know but they cannot vote for a rule and say it counts as voting for a bill.

The other interesting thing that I see is Joe Biden has a big role in this as President of the Senate. This is the guy who scolded Dick Cheney and cited the wrong part of the Constitution when discussing the role of the VP. Seems that Biden was unaware that the VP has Executive and Legislative responsibility and that this is spelled out in the Constitution (it really helps to read it).

In any event, Biden might get a chance to learn what the VP is allowed to do.

Now it would be funny to see them do all of this only to have it nullified as unconstitutional, or declared not a law because they did not vote on a BILL. They would be back to square one and a lot closer to the election. They would never get another chance and that is a good thing.

Big Dog

Gunline

If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.

Democrats Push Forward Despite Danger

The Democrats are moving along at full speed in order to ram the health care takeover down our throats (though it might be more appropriate to indicate they are ramming it in another body part considering what they are trying to do to us). Nancy Pelosi is busing tightening leashes and Barack Obama has postponed his mini vacation for a few days to help usher this thing along.

I hope he has as much success as he did getting the Olympics in Chicago and Democrats elected in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.

I told you before that this is not about health and it is not about care, it is about control. It is also something that Democrats must pass. They need this to secure a win on a signature issue for Obama. Democrats push forward at their own peril because, by and large, Americans do not want this. The reasons are many including those who do not want it because it is not liberal enough, those who do not like certain provisions and those who do not want any of it because they believe government does not belong in the health care business.

No matter what the reason, the opposition is too loud to ignore. The Democrats However, are good at doing just that. Last August Americans came out in force to town hall meetings and voiced their objections. The Democrat’s answer was to stop having town hall meetings.

Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen, two Democrat pollsters, are warning of Armageddon if the Democrats pass this monstrosity over the objections of the public. They freely admit that Democrats stand to lose seats in the midterm elections (a historical trend) but go on to say that Democrats will lose many more if they pass it.

Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November. In the wake of the stinging loss in Massachusetts, there was a moment when the president and the Democratic leadership seemed to realize the reality of the health-care situation. Yet like some seductive siren of Greek mythology, the lure of health-care reform has arisen again.

~snip~

However, a solid majority of Americans opposes the massive health-reform plan. Four-fifths of those who oppose the plan strongly oppose it, according to Rasmussen polling this week, while only half of those who support the plan do so strongly. Many more Americans believe the legislation will worsen their health care, cost them more personally and add significantly to the national deficit. Never in our experience as pollsters can we recall such self-deluding misconstruction of survey data.

The writing is on the wall. Despite the claims that people like the bill when they know more about it, the reality is people do not like it and do not want it. Democrats proceed at their own peril.

The authors indicate that people agree that reform is needed and that some parts of the plan are appealing but that the plan in total is not liked. This has not stopped Democrats from moving on, full speed ahead. They continue to claim people will like it once they see what is in it (which we apparently cannot do until it is passed). This is untrue because people already know what is in it and they do not like it.

As Caddell and Schoen state; “…the battle for public opinion has been lost.”

But this will not stop Democrats from walking off a cliff.

And the bad thing for them is that if this does not pass, at this point in the game, those who voted for it will be in real trouble for backing a loser and against the wishes of those they are supposed to represent.

Big Dog

Gunline

If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.

Reconciliation Hits A Snag

The process by which Congress wants to ram the health care takeover through has hit a bit of a snag. The House and Senate have not convened a conference committee to reconcile their respective bills and they do not intend to because that would require the Senate to go through its established voting procedures.

The scheme that has been devised is to use reconciliation, a process reserved for budget matters only, to pass a bill. Under the scheme, the House would have to vote for the Senate bill and then the Senate would use reconciliation to tweak the bill to please the members of the House. The problem is that once the bill is voted on by the House then there is a single, identical bill. It could be sent to Barack Obama and signed into law. This is one reason that many members of the House are not willing to vote for the Senate bill.

The House does not trust the Senate (and by extension, it does not trust Obama).

There were other schemes introduced to help ease the mistrust. The original plan to pass the bill and then tweak it is not popular because there is no guarantee the Senate would hold it until the tweaks are completed. That is now a non issue because the Senate parliamentarian has determined that reconciliation can only be used for an existing law. In other words, the Senate bill would have to be voted on by the House, signed into law by Obama and then reconciled with a simple majority of the Senate.

The House will not go for this because it does not want to take the chance that the Senate bill will become law without the changes the House wants.

So the Democrats are continuing to use convoluted logic to concoct new schemes. The House is considering enacting a rule saying that once they vote on the changes to the Senate bill the Senate bill will be deemed to have passed. In other words, they will vote for a rule change and if that rule change passes they will vote for the fixes to the bill and if that passes the Senate bill will be deemed to have passed. This would allow them to vote for what they want before they have a law to vote on.

It is likely that this is unconstitutional. And do they think Americans are so stupid that we cannot see what they are doing?

Just like Democrats though, change the rules during the game to get the outcome they want.

I have a feeling that this is going to take quite some time to work out because the Democrats are making up the rules as they go along and are doing everything, legal or not, to pass this albatross. This will likely not be voted on prior to the Easter break and if it makes it that far without getting a vote then it might not make it this year. Republicans have already indicated they will follow the reconciliation rules to the letter to keep any item that is not a budget item from passing. This means many of the fixes that the House wants will not make it through. The House Democrats, who are already uneasy, must be even more so after this latest news. They want to get this done soon because they have things to do.

Democrats have to get home to campaign for reelection. They have a lot of lies to tell and a lot of explaining to do.

Sources:
New York Post
Bloomberg
Washington Examiner

Big Dog

Gunline

If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.

Why Does Dept Of Education Need Shotguns?

The Department of Education wants twenty-seven shotguns.

When I first looked at this I thought it might be for sporting programs and that maybe some school systems had skeet or trap teams. But once I read the summary I knew that could not be the case. The shotguns requested have 14″ barrels which would not be good for either sport. Further reading shows that the intent is for tactical purposes:

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14″ – PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT – XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID – 14″ LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
The required date of delivery is March 22, 2010.
Interested sources must submit detailed technical capabilities and any other information that demonstrates their ability to meet the requirements above, no later than March 12, 2010 at 12 PM, E.S.T. Any quotes must be submitted electronically to the attention of Holly.Le@ed.gov, Contract Specialist (Contract Operations Group), with a concurrent copy to Sherese.Lewis@ed.gov, Contracting Officer (Contract Operations Group). FedBizOpps [emphasis mine]

Why would the Department of Education need tactical shotguns and why does it have an existing inventory of them??

There might be a good reason but I do not know what it is.

This is another of the things government does that makes you wonder if the inmates are running the asylum…

Big Dog

Gunline

If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.

Prayers For Harry Reid’s Wife And Daughter

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s wife and daughter were injured in an accident on Interstate 95 today. His daughter is expected to be released from the hospital but his wife has more serious injuries.

A spokesman for the senator says 69-year-old Landra Reid broke her back, neck and nose in the accident. She is being treated at Inova Fairfax Hospital in suburban Virginia. The New York Times

Mrs. Reid’s injuries are serious but not considered life threatening but she has a long road to travel before she fully recovers.

The Big Dog family extends prayers on behalf of Harry Reid’s wife and daughter and wishes them a full and speedy recovery.

Big Dog

Gunline

If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.