Deem creep! : Lawyers, Guns & Money.
Let the howling begin!
Democrats in the House plan to use a parliamentary process, most often used by the GOP, as explicitly allowed in Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution, to pass by simple majority, changes to a bill that has already been passed. This is to bypass a parliamentary process requiring a super-majority (the filibuster). Article 1, Section 5 allows each chamber to set their own rules, here’s the relevant text:
Section 5.
Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings
Pretty straight forward. Each party has in the past howled about how unfair “deem and pass” and the filibuster are. Each party has used each pretty sparingly, until recently. Use of the filibuster by the Republicans has greatly increased in the last two Congresses. It went from rare to nearly a daily occurrence:
Last year, the first of the 111th Congress, there were a record 112 cloture votes. In the first two months of 2010, the number already exceeds 40.
That means, with 10 months left to run in the 111th Congress, Republicans have turned to the filibuster or threatened its use at a pace that will more than triple the old record. The 104th Congress in 1995-96 — when Republicans held a 53-47 majority — required 50 cloture votes.
This one reason it’s being used. I really don’t know if the Democratic leadership thinks that deem and pass will be better for the caucus electorally. I don’t think the GOP will be their “friends” either way. The voters may feel differently if something useful gets accomplished, but right now this tit for tat business seems to disgust most people. Approval of Congress in the toilet. Either for trying trying to run the country through “Demon Pass” (located someplace between Purgatory and Hell in Dante’s Inferno) or for failing to get anything done, depending on your point of view.
