{"id":435806,"date":"2010-03-16T17:43:47","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T21:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/health\/2010\/03\/16\/health-bill-from-reconciliation-to-deeming\/"},"modified":"2010-03-16T17:43:47","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T21:43:47","slug":"health-bill-from-reconciliation-to-%c2%91deeming%c2%92","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/435806","title":{"rendered":"Health Bill: From Reconciliation to \u0091Deeming\u0092"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post by WSJ’s Naftali Bendavid also appears on the Washington Wire blog.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"logo\"We\u0092re not doing anything wrong. And besides, the Republicans did it more.<\/p>\n

That was much of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer\u0092s message today as he struck back at critics of the legislative tactics Democrats are using to push through their health overhaul bill. Dismissing the criticism as an inside-the-Beltway fixation, Hoyer said the American public cares about what\u0092s in a bill, not the process by which it passes.<\/p>\n

\u0093 \u0091So what?\u0092 says the American public,\u0094 Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters. \u0093What they\u0092re interested in is what resulted. \u0091What did you do for me and my family to make my life more secure?\u0092 \u0094<\/p>\n

Republicans have been complaining loudly about the legislative process used by the Democrats as they struggle to push their health overhaul over the finish line. In particular, GOP leaders have criticized the planned use of \u0093reconciliation,\u0094 a provision that allows the Senate to pass a bill with a simple majority of 51, rather than the 60 usually required for controversial bill.<\/p>\n

More recently, they have also challenged Democrats for considering a tactic under which the House would \u0093deem,\u0094 or declare, the Senate version of the health bill passed, even as it makes changes to it. Under this plan, House members wouldn’t hold a separate, independent vote on the Senate bill, which many of them dislike.<\/p>\n

Rep. Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said on the floor today that the House should \u0093take an up-or-down vote on the Senate bill\u0094 rather than \u0093ram this bill through without a direct vote.\u0094 \u0093The majority seems committed to trying to muscle through a trillion-dollar overhaul that will change health care for every man, woman, and child,\u0094 said Cantor, the second-ranking House Republican<\/p>\n

But Hoyer said Republicans, when they held power, repeatedly used the same processes they are now decrying. \u0093That, I think, is hypocritical at best,\u0094 he said.<\/p>\n

Democrats circulated background material showing that deeming was first used in 1933 and, since then, has been used more often by Republicans than Democrats. Republicans respond that these tactics have never been used for bills as sweeping as the health care overhaul.<\/p>\n

Hoyer said Democrats are contemplating the moves only because Republicans are using Senate rules to thwart the majority\u0092s will.<\/p>\n

\u0093The Republicans have been yelling about process,\u0094 he said. But \u0093this bill has received more careful consideration, more exposure, more transparency, more debate, more hearing time, more debate time, more amendments offered than almost any bill I can think of in my time in the Congress of the United States.\u0094<\/p>\n

Besides, Hoyer added, House members will vote on whether to approve the Senate bill, even if it\u0092s by deeming it passed as they make changes to it. \u0093Does anybody in this room doubt that you have to vote on that?\u0094 he said. \u0093We will vote on it, in one form or another.\u0094<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post by WSJ’s Naftali Bendavid also appears on the Washington Wire blog. We\u0092re not doing anything wrong. And besides, the Republicans did it more. That was much of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer\u0092s message today as he struck back at critics of the legislative tactics Democrats are using to push through their health overhaul […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":792,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/792"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}