Nancy Pelosi is determined to win at any cost. According to the Washington Post as reprinted in CBS News, the Speaker is planning on using a “procedural sleight of hand” to push this bill through.

The Washington Post goes on to say:

The tactic — known as a “self-executing rule” or a “deem and pass” — has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill.

Essentially, this allows the cowardly lions of the House to vote for the Senate bill without voting for the Senate bill. Really. Speaker Pelosi has made it abundantly clear (again) that the “end justifies the means” in her comments yesterday:

I like it because people don’t have to vote on the Senate bill.

Every coward who votes for this “non vote” in the House should be summarily discharged from public office next November.

(My position on health care reform follows)

Lest I be accused of being a mindless Republican or an obstructionist drone, please continue reading.

I have consistently taken the position that Republicans should be blamed for never addressing the health care crisis in America. I worked for many years for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, and I know first hand the tricks that health insurance companies have used to deny coverage to people and the fine print used to deny claims. Their only defense has been the “level playing field defense” which in essence says (correctly) if we do something decent and moral, and our competitors don’t, we will be out of business. That is true. But what is also true is that the Health Insurance Industry never lobbied Congress or their state legislatures for a better playing field that would benefit the public.

So I am no friend of the Republican Party, and I have no pity on the health insurance industry.

My concerns about this current legislation are:

  • What will be the real cost? I call baloney on the estimates given and I am offended that this has been sold as a “free lunch.”
  • What additional control will the federal government have that may impact my life? You can’t tell me “no additional control” because you know that just ain’t so. Maybe I am fine with some additional control (heck, they already control so much of it) but just be honest about it.
  • The process to regulate one sixth of the American economy must be transparent and follow ethical rules. This is the deal killer for me on this particular legislation. I could live with the first two concerns. I understand salesmanship. But the “cloak and dagger” nature of this process has made me loathe it.

I am tired of the Democratic Leadership defending their appalling lack of transparency and their egregious violation of the spirit of the rules. Have the Republicans done the same thing many times? Yep. Just read my earlier posts about the TARP bill and how I felt about that. But two wrongs never made a right. Throw the bums out.