The Democrats' Assault On Deliberative Democracy

"Democracy go to hell" - that's the message from our far left Democrats today. The latest comes from Harry Reid's insidious machinations in the Health Care Bill. According to Hot Air, buried deep within the bill is a provision that would require a supermajority of 67 votes in the Senate " to overrule the bill’s rationing board, the Independent Medical Advisory Board, whose purpose (stated on page 1001) is to “reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending.” In legalese, this is known as "entrenchment" - i.e., placing a condition within legislation to make it more difficult for the same body acting in the future to amend or repeal a provision. It is of dubious constitutionality.

A supermajority is only constitutionally required for four things: to override a Presidential veto (Art I, Sec. 7); to make binding a treaty signed by the President (Art I, Sec. II); as part of the process of amending the Constitution (Art. 5); and to declare a President disabled and unable to discharge his duties (Amendment 25). At no other place in the Constitution is anything other than a simple majority authorized or required.

U.S. Const. Art. I Sec. 5 provides "Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings . . ." The Senate has formed its rules into a book called "The Standing Rules Of The Senate." It provides at rule 22 that to end a filibuster requires three fifths of the Senate (60 votes) "except on a measure or motion to amend the Senate rules, in which case the necessary affirmative vote shall be two-thirds [67] of the Senators present and voting . . ."

Reid wants to insure that when the backlash to our far left socialists comes starting with next year's election, that the Health Care bill remains a 'bridge too far' to amend or repeal by the normal democratic process. He seeks to accomplish this by changing a Senate Rule. Yet because he cannot possibly get 67 votes for his proposed change, he has slipped it into the Healthcare bill which will likely soon pass by a simple majority vote.

This is a patent violation of Senate Rule 22. Yet you can listen to the video below as the Democrats take the position that the change proposed in the Healthcare Bill is only to "procedure," not to a "rule." In so doing, they create a distinction utterly without a difference and continue their destruction of deliberative democracy in America. Moreover, since Senate rules are Constitutionally obliged, Harry Reid's unilateral negation of the rules ought to be unconstitutional. That said, given our Supreme Court's penchant for rewriting the Constitution per their whim, its constitutionality must remain an open question.



I look back to the Bush days when the far left charged the right with destroying the Constitution. In each instance, the basis for the charge was that the Bush Administion did not agree with the far left's radical reinterpretation of Constitutional provisions. The MSM provided the far left with constant repetition of their message, while the right responded weakly and, even then, was given little play in the media. Looking back on that time with the benefit of a comparison to what the far left is doing today, even a blind man could see what an utter canard that was. There is no force on this earth more inimical to democracy and the text of the Constitution than Obama and the far left who hold the reins of power in America today. And in their effort, the far left continues to enjoy near unanimous support of the MSM.

I do hope Republicans are paying close attention. The far left is playing for keeps. If Republicans listen to the MSM noise machine and do not fight these anti-democratic socialists with equal ferocity and utter ruthlessness, America will lose. Bipartisanship under the Obama administration is naught but an empty concept used by Democrats to beat conservatives over the head for failing to fully acquiesce to the far left's blueprint for American national suicide. We are in a zero sum war for the future direction of this country, if not its very soul.

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