The corrupt ‘Slaughter Solution’

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) is the chairwoman of the House Rules Committee and says she can pass the rule that will govern how the House handles the Senate-passed healthcare legislation by saying, simply, well — get this — that the House doesn’t have to vote on that legislation.

Yes, the House is considering passing a rule that says it doesn’t have to do its job and vote on a bill. The rule would simply “deem” the Senate-passed healthcare bill — and the reconciliation bill that will get rid of things like Gatorade and the Cornhusker Kickback — as passed by the House, allowing them not to have to subsequently vote for its passage.

Huh? If, procedurally, that didn’t make much sense to you, you’re not alone. If, politically, you’re wondering how passing the rule to deem a bill passed is substantively different from voting for the bill, you’re also not alone.

Putting aside the sneaky, slimy sleight-of-hand the Slaughter Solution would allow Democrats to pull off, I wonder: Do Slaughter and House Democrats think this will fool anyone? The idea is to allow vulnerable, squishy House Democrats not to have to vote directly on the Senate bill. But they act like people won’t be able to put two and two together — as if voting for the rule that deems it passed is any different than voting to pass it.

I’m not entirely sure who — aside from the Dems themselves — is fooled by this. Juries don’t fall for this reasoning — you don’t get a free pass if you hired someone to murder your wife but didn’t pull the trigger — and neither will voters, just because this time the context is different. After all, juries and voters are basically one and the same, right?

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