St. Joseph Wants Health Rationing

Americans in the Land of Lenin: Early Soviet Russia

This collection of photographs of daily life in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is drawn from the personal papers of Robert L. Eichelberger and Frank Whitson Fetter, two ordinary Americans who found themselves in an extraordinary place and time.

Will Health Care Lower Costs?

Will Health Care Lower Costs?

Former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin on the future of health-care reform and why he does not believe the bill will decrease the deficit.

Uncertain Costs, Preliminary Analysis, CBO

Uncertainly emerges from today’s CBO report:

“Although CBO completed a preliminary review of legislative language prior to its release, the agency has not thoroughly examined the reconciliation proposal to verify its consistency with the previous draft. This estimate is therefore preliminary, pending a review of the language of the reconciliation proposal, as well as further review and refinement of the budgetary projections.” (CBO Preliminary Estimate, 3/18/2010)
"CBO has developed a rough outlook for the decade following the 2010-2019 period..."

"The imprecision of that calculation reflects the even greater degree of uncertainty that attends to it, compared with CBO's 10-year budget estimates."

"CBO has not extrapolated estimates further into the future because the uncertainties surrounding them are magnified even more."

Dem Congressman: "If You Don't Tie Our Hands, We Will Keep Stealing"

Dem Congressman: "If You Don't Tie Our Hands, We Will Keep Stealing"

Dems sweeten health bill, set showdown Sunday vote

Dems sweeten health bill, set showdown Sunday vote

Obama Signs New Health Rationing Bill!

A TVPigs sketch created by Carter MacDowell at Diagonal Cows, Inc.
© 2009 Diagonal Cows, Inc.
Distributed by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

Stanford Law Professor (Judge) Says Not Constitutional

Michael McConnell writes in the WSJ: Enter the Slaughter solution. It may be clever, but it is not constitutional. To become law—hence eligible for amendment via reconciliation—the Senate health-care bill must actually be signed into law. The Constitution speaks directly to how that is done. According to Article I, Section 7, in order for a "Bill" to "become a Law," it "shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate" and be "presented to the President of the United States" for signature or veto. Unless a bill actually has "passed" both Houses, it cannot be presented to the president and cannot become a law.

E-mails suggested Fort Hood suspect subpar for Army

Reviews ripped killings suspect.

C-Span Puts Full Archives on the Web

C-Span Puts Full Archives on the Web.

Federal agencies haven't lived up to Obama's promise of a more open government

Federal agencies haven't lived up to Obama's promise of a more open government.

Kingston Questions Economic Policies, Spending in Budget Hearing

Kingston Questions Economic Policies, Spending in Budget Hearing

Obama's budget team came before the Appropriations Committee today for a hearing on the Presidents record-setting budget. Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA) used the chance to quiz Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Economic Advisor Christina Romer, and Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orzag on the Presidents failed economic policies and out of control spending in Washington.

Obama Aides See ‘Extended Period’ of Unemployment

Obama Aides See ‘Extended Period’ of Unemployment. A joint statement issued today verified the announcement.

Economic News

Gardner Says Fed Likely to Oversee Consumer Protection

Bloomberg — March 15, 2010 — March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Brian Gardner, an analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods Inc., talks with Bloomberg's Carol Massar about the outlook for legislation to overhaul financial regulation. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, will unveil an overhaul bill today without Republican backing. Gardner speaks from Washington. (Source: Bloomberg)

Gertler Discusses Federal Open Market Committee Meeting

Bloomberg — March 15, 2010 — March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Mark Gertler, a professor of economics at New York University, talks with Bloomberg's Carol Massar about the outlook for Federal Reserve monetary policy and the U.S. economy. (Source: Bloomberg)

Americans Are Too Stupid To Care About Congressional Procedures

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

“The one thing I am sure of is that the American people don’t know or care much about the sequencing of parliamentary procedures.”

Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod appeared on NBC’s Meet The Press

'The Most Brazen Act Of Political Arrogance Since Watergate'

Unconstitutional Procedure Being Used to Pass Unconstitutional ObamaCare

Unconstitutional Procedure Being Used to Pass Unconstitutional ObamaCare
by Brian Darling

House leaders are preparing to ram through ObamaCare this week without a vote. Not only is the legislation unconstitutional, but the process being used to pass it is unconstitutional. The House is preparing a rule that would consider the Senate-passed version of ObamaCare passed in the House even though members would never directly vote on it. That would violate Article 1, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution.

Here is how the trick would work: In the House, the Rules Committee sets up the parameters for debate on legislation. House leaders are considering a complicated rule that would be structured so that a vote on the rule setting down the structure for the ObamaCare debate would allow the Senate’s version of health care reform to pass without a vote. First, there would be a vote on a rule. If the rule is passed by the House, then the House would vote on a health care budget reconciliation measure that is an amendment to the Senate passed ObamaCare bill. If that reconciliation measure passes, then reconciliation goes to the Senate and the ObamaCare legislation is deemed passed without a direct vote. The plan for the legislation is unclear. House leadership will either structure the rule to either immediately present ObamaCare to the President for his signature or they will hold the bill and deliver it only if the Senate passes a health care reconciliation measure. Either way, the Constitution and the American people are the losers.

Understand that this procedure is drafted in a way so your average American can’t understand it. The simple way to understand the situation is that the House is trying to pass a bill without a vote.

The Constitution states that the House and Senate are supposed to pass identical versions of a bill before the President can sign it into law. One of the reasons for this tricky procedure is to provide cover for moderate Democrats who don’t want to vote for the Senate-passed ObamaCare bill because it includes the federal funding of abortion.

Michael McConnell, Professor and Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, explains it this way at the Wall Street Journal today:

Democratic congressional leaders have floated a plan to enact health-care reform by a procedure dubbed “the Slaughter solution.” It is named not for the political carnage that it might inflict on their members, but for Rep. Louise Slaughter (D., N.Y.), chair of the powerful House Rules Committee, who proposed it. Under her proposal, Democrats would pass a rule that deems the Senate’s health-care bill to have passed the House, without the House actually voting on the bill. This would enable Congress to vote on legislation that fixes flaws in the Senate health-care bill without facing a Senate filibuster, and without requiring House members to vote in favor of a Senate bill that is now politically toxic.

McConnell is right. The Constitution says that:

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.

If a branch does not vote on a bill, then that bill did not pass. This proposed procedure seems to be a clear violation of the letter and spirit of the Constitution. There will be debate on the proper remedy for this constitutional affront, but all can agree that, at a minimum, House members can raise a constitutional point of order against the rule.

Liberals in the House understand that this process is hard to defend. Chris Frates at Politico writes about a leaked memo drafted by Assistant to the Speaker Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) intended to provide talking points to Democrat members when challenged on the unconstitutional process.

The Van Hollen memo also advised members to avoid talking about the process. “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,” the memo says. “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.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the House Rules Committee have come up with a very complicated procedure to get ObamaCare to the President’s desk without House members having to vote directly on the bill. This procedure is going to be debated extensively this week and may be the key issue as to whether President Obama signs legislation to provide a de facto government-run health care system.

Is China's Politburo spoiling for a showdown with America?

The long-simmering clash between the world's two great powers is coming to a head, with dangerous implications for the international system.

U.S., U.K. Move Closer to Losing Rating, Moody’s Says

U.S. Closer to Losing Rating: Moody.

Congressman Rogers' Questioning Sec. Geithner on the USA's AAA Bond Rating

In today's Appropriations hearing Congressman Rogers expressed his concern for the government's record spending and deficits and how that will impact the country's AAA bond rating.

Stupak

‘They Just Want This Over’