Updates from 'Health-Care Hell'; Update: Pitchfork time

*ETA this from Brian Darling at RedState: Constitution be Damned

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has scheduled a vote next week on a House rule to get ObamaCare passed without one Representative having to vote on the bill. This may be unconstitutional. I have to be careful not to say that “Pelosi will schedule a vote on ObamaCare,” because the plan right now is to pass the Senate version of ObamaCare without a vote in the House. The procedure is purposefully confusing because liberals in Congress hope the American people don’t figure out this procedural fraud until it is too late. So much for the Constitution that says that a bill does not become a law until the House and Senate pass identical bills, and then the President signs that legislation.

The Pelosi agreement is to allow the House to vote on a rule that will preclude a vote on ObamaCare. First, the House will take up a rule that will “deem” the Senate passed version of ObamaCare to have passed after the House passes a reconciliation bill. The reconciliation bill is a yet to be released budgetary bill to reconcile current law and it amends the Senate ObamaCare bill. The left assumes that the American people are too dense to understand that they are going to pass an unpopular bill in the House, yet House members can run back to the district and claim they never voted for the bill. Win-win for Members of Congress and lose-lose for the American people.

The earlier "ruling" by the senate parliamentarian wasn't what it seemed (it seems). Please read the whole thing at RedState and The Foundry.

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Stole that from Jonah Goldberg. Snippet:

But here’s the thing: There is no “over” to this debate. Obama, Pelosi & Co. have demonstrated time and again that no deadline is final if it means losing. Meanwhile, if Obamacare passes, Republicans will run on a promise to repeal it, and that means we’ll be debating health-care reform at least through 2010. Then, depending on how the election goes, the repeal debate will become part of the legislative process. That will in all likelihood carry the debate into the 2012 presidential election. In other words, there is time for talk as far as the eye can see.

Updates:

Rep. Bart Stupak sounds resolved but reports that "one or two" of his twelve will cave. He also provides some ugly insight into the Democratic view of the sanctity (or lack thereof) of life:

“They’re ignoring me,” he says, in a phone interview with National Review Online. “That’s their strategy now. The House Democratic leaders think they have the votes to pass the Senate’s health-care bill without us. At this point, there is no doubt that they’ve been able to peel off one or two of my twelve. And even if they don’t have the votes, it’s been made clear to us that they won’t insert our language on the abortion issue.”

“I am a definite ‘no’ vote,” he says. “I didn’t cave. The others are having both of their arms twisted, and we’re all getting pounded by our traditional Democratic supporters, like unions.

“I really believe that the Democratic leadership is simply unwilling to change its stance,” he says. “Their position says that women, especially those without means available, should have their abortions covered.” The arguments they have made to him in recent deliberations, he adds, “are a pretty sad commentary on the state of the Democratic party.”

What are Democratic leaders saying? “If you pass the Stupak amendment, more children will be born, and therefore it will cost us millions more. That’s one of the arguments I’ve been hearing,” Stupak says. “Money is their hang-up. Is this how we now value life in America? If money is the issue — come on, we can find room in the budget. This is life we’re talking about.”

Read the whole thing.

The union arm-twisters make an offer the Dems will find hard to refuse:

“We put an enormous amount of effort into electing Democrats,” Fishman said. “This is the most important issue on everyone’s plate. We’re sending a message to Democrats: If you can’t support this, we can’t support you.”

Sen. Harry Reid boasts of his popularity with Planned Parenthood and says he would vote for taxpayer-funded abortions in a healthcare bill.

And Politico publishes a memo from Rep. Chris Van Hollen, assistant to Speaker Pelosi, to the staff members of newer House Dems.

Hi all –

Attached and below are some good resources to get through the health care push next week.

Here is my best guess on timeline but as always this is Congress so it could all change very quickly:

TODAY or MONDAY: CBO will publish final scores on legislative language

THEN: House Budget Committee must approve using the reconciliation process to pass this

THEN: The bill will go to the Rules Committee, rule will be constructed for consideration on the floor, and language will be posted online (on the Rules website) and the 72-hour clock will start. When this happens, we will start to have a better idea on what the process will be.

THEN: A Manager’s Amendment will be constructed that will make some final changes

THEN: The Manager’s Amendment will be posted online and the 72-hour clock will start (this may overlap with the 72-hour clock on the reconciliation language). When Manager’s Amendment is done final process decisions will be locked in.

THIS MEANS: We will likely vote Friday or Saturday. (As you probably saw, POTUS pushed back the departure for his Asian trip from Thursday the 18th to Sunday the 21st; this was not a coincidence.) The Speaker has publically committed to trying to get a vote on both the reconciliation bill and the Senate bill on the same day. They are still trying to work out the final process on this and much of what we do depends on what the Senate Parliamentarian decides. You may be receiving calls about the “Slaughter Rule” and other rumors about what the process will be. Again, please understand: no decision has yet been made on the process for consideration on the House floor.

Key points:

1. I would have your Member’s schedule pretty clear for next weekend. They will either be here or exhausted (or both).

2. I continue to encourage all of you not to get into debates about process and to try and persuade your Member not to get into process arguments either. At this point, we have to just rip the band-aid off and have a vote -- up or down; yes or no? Things like reconciliation and what the rules committee does is INSIDE BASEBALL. People who try and start arguments about process on this are almost always against the actual policy substance too, often times for purely political reasons.

3. Finally, I encourage you to study the final attached slide (#14) and give some thought to what your plan is post-vote, especially during Easter Work Period. If your Member is a yes, or might be a yes, I would lay the groundwork for some events to highlight the reforms that will quickly become law – no more donut hole, dependent children covered until 26, insurance access for those with pre-existing conditions, etc.

Interesting that the leadership discourages its members from looking too closely at the process. This implies that some of them care about right and wrong and might not want to sell their souls for Madame Speaker.

See follow-up post: Anatomy of a power grab.

h/t: Mary Sue, The Corner
Linked at Michelle Malkin (buzzworthy)

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