By Matt Hawes
Ryan Grim over at The Huffington Post reports on Nancy Pelosi’s recent statements concerning health care, including an acknowledgement that “[n]obody wants to vote for the Senate bill.”
So the third option is to write the rule so that the passage of the reconciliation package deems the Senate bill to also have passed, a parliamentary maneuver she said the Senate parliamentarian had said was acceptable.
It’s a technical distinction and Democrats hope that it’s deep enough in the weeds that average voters will focus instead on the substance of the legislation instead of the confusing process. Asked if she had firmly decided to pursue the third option, she answered, “I like the third one better.”…
More interesting statements from the Speaker appear near the end of the piece.
Once the bill is passed, she said, she is ready to defend it against “the same forces that were aligned against Medicare.”
“We’ve been a piñata for six months,” she said. “We have to take it to the American people and say this is the choice that you have.”
Well, how nice of her.
And be sure to keep those calls, emails, and faxes going this week. Your representatives need to hear loud and clear that it’s time for legitimate, constitutional reform, not the cementing of the status quo we’re being sold as “change.”