Filibuster Versus "Slaughter Solution" Or Obamascare Versus Obamacare

The anti-Obamacare crowd blogs are up on thebill would be politically unpalatable. The self
ramparts today decrying and vilifying the sneakyexecuting bill would permit the House to "deem"
move Democrats are proposing to use a Housethe Senate bill passed and then in the same bill
of Representatives rule to push through healthoffer amendments to cure some of the unpopular
care reform. The opponents entitle the maneuverprovisions of the Senate bill. By "deeming" the bill
the "Slaughter solution" after the House Rulespassed the House would not actually vote on the
Committee Chairman, Louise Slaughter, ( D. NY).bill standing alone, but as part of a package with
It is unconstitutional they say because it deprivesthe amendments. By "deeming" the bill passed it
the public of a vote by its representatives and itcould be signed into law by the President and the
fails to comply with the "presentation" clause ofamendments thereto approved alone by the
the Constitution, Article I, Section 7, Clause 2Senate on a majority vote that is not subject to
which requires a bill to be passed by both housesthe 60 vote filibuster buster rule.
of Congress and presented to the President forThis is undemocratic the opponents say and
his signature before becoming law.undermines the Constitution. They say it is an
The "Slaughter solution" as Mr. Boehner (R., Ohio)onerous parliamentary procedure to thwart the
calls it is actually known as the "self executingwill of the people. Interestingly it was most used
rule" and has been around since the 1970s. Within the 105th Congress when Newt Gingrich, (R.
the polarization of the politics in Washington it hasGa.) was speaker of the house. Further, is
become a more frequently used proceduraldemocracy served by the filibuster which is itself
device to limit amendments and to push througha "procedural" maneuver? The term filibuster is
contentious legislation. The maneuver works asderived from the Spanish word "filibustero" or
follows: since the health care reform bill passedpirate. It was commonly used to describe the
the Senate with 60 votes and is different fromactivists in the Southern States who were
the House Bill. it would normally requireactively trying to disrupt the actions of
reconciliation of the two bills and a presentationdemocratic governments in Latin America during
for revote in both houses. Since the Democratsthe 19th Century. According to Wikipedia the
no longer have a filibuster proof, 60 vote majorityterm "filibuster" is a type of parliamentary
health care reform in a reconciled bill would beprocedure. Specifically it is a form of obstruction in
dead on arrival, since the Republicans area legislative or other decision making body
uniformly opposed to any health care reform bill,whereby one attempts to delay or entirely
that substantially changes the current landscape.prevent a vote on a proposal. Not exactly a
The Democrats in the house could take the billparagon of democratic procedure. In other words,
approved by the Senate and agree to pass it asthe Democrats, ironically, are using an
is and then present the bill to the President forundemocratic parliamentary procedure in the
signature. Trouble is that there are abortionhouse to overcome an undemocratic
language, "public option" and other issues that theparliamentary procedure in the House. There is a
House Democrats disagree with their Senatelot more hypocrisy, than democracy in this
colleagues on and politically voting for the Senatedebate and furor.