Re: The PPACA Thread Part IV - Repeal & Replace, or Something...
That whole article is interesting (although I would like to read a smart and comprehensive account of all the procedural issues at stake). It alludes to the Congressional procedural move I most despise:
If I understand, they are referring to the move where you take a bill that has moved out of committee and is scheduled for a vote, strip everything from it, literally, and copy-paste in a whole other bill. This isn't like attaching riders or the bad (good) old days of earmarks, this is gutting the turkey and pushing a duck inside it. The idea is not to obscure it but to short-circuit all the rules that allow the minority some procedural wiggle room.
99 times out of 100 this gets used to correct an actual, unplanned, bipartisan f-ck-up by Congress: like they literally don't have the time left to pass a full appropriation and the Grandma Program is going to be detached from life support in 5 hours, so they body snatch the next bill for a vote, the Cement Mixer Adjustment Act, and just shove Granny in the tauntaun carcass and pass it on voice vote.
But it's still a flagrant violation of the intent of, well, having any f-cking rules at all. Mix in partisanship and an important issue and it's a despicable tactic, whoever does it.
Originally posted by MaizeRage
View Post
If Republican leaders hold onto the bill until the CBO report is released, then Ryan and his team could still redo it if necessary. That would require at least one more House vote of some sort.
That vote could be cloaked in some kind of arcane procedural move, but it would still be depicted as a proxy for yet another vote on the same bill -- and reluctant Republicans will once again be forced to decide whether to back it.
That vote could be cloaked in some kind of arcane procedural move, but it would still be depicted as a proxy for yet another vote on the same bill -- and reluctant Republicans will once again be forced to decide whether to back it.
99 times out of 100 this gets used to correct an actual, unplanned, bipartisan f-ck-up by Congress: like they literally don't have the time left to pass a full appropriation and the Grandma Program is going to be detached from life support in 5 hours, so they body snatch the next bill for a vote, the Cement Mixer Adjustment Act, and just shove Granny in the tauntaun carcass and pass it on voice vote.
But it's still a flagrant violation of the intent of, well, having any f-cking rules at all. Mix in partisanship and an important issue and it's a despicable tactic, whoever does it.
Comment