I’m getting fed up with the media, especially CNN.
The House passed a health care reform bill. The Senate passed a different health care reform bill with a super-majority. These two bills need to be merged into a single bill that both houses agree to. There are some things in the Senate bill that everyone agrees need to be changed. For example, even Ben Nelson agrees that “the Cornhusker Kickback” should come out.
The GOP wants to force the house to symbolically vote for the Senate bill, which everyone agrees won’t be the final bill, so they can use “(S)He voted for the Cornhusker Kickback” in negative campaign ads.
The speaker of the house, as is her legal prerogative, wants to pass the package of fixes to the Senate bill. As part of that process, the Senate bill will be “deemed” passed. IOW, if I was dead set against the Senate bill and could never vote for it, but was happy with the bill once the fixes were in place, I could vote for both at once. That way, rather than “trusting” the Senate to pass the fixes, the house is saying to that rather arrogant body “it’s this, or nothing” when it’s the Senates turn to reconcile the differences.
What does the media do? Pander to the fundie nutbag faction of the GOP by repeating the phrase “demon pass”, over and over again. Not bothering to explain that using “deem and pass” is not unprecedented, or even unusual, they don’t challenge the GOP’s assertion that there will be NO vote.
If there’s not going to be another vote, how come the GOP is so intent on delaying the vote? To give their insurance company buddies time to run more negative ads?
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