Democrats defy Constitution on health care

Last week, the Senate parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, ruled that Democratic leaders couldn't amend the ObamaCare bill partway through the process with a reconciliation sidecar. The president would have to sign into law the wildly unpopular Senate bill before any changes could be made. This was a blow to the House where Democrats are divided against the Senate legislation for a number of reasons, including abortion and special deals like the Cornhusker Kickback. We predicted that the only route for success would be for Harry Reid to fire the parliamentarian. Instead Democrats have decided to just ignore the parliamentarian's ruling entirely.

[Congressional Democratic] Leaders appeared to be favoring a maneuver that would allow lawmakers to approve the reconciliation package without taking a separate vote on the politically dicey Senate bill. Under this scenario, the Senate bill would be deemed to have cleared the chamber once the House approved the package of fixes.

In other words, the House doesn't even have to vote on an actual bill. They can just approve a list of changes -- the reconciliation sidecar -- which will then amend a bill that, again, they haven't actually approved. It's called the Slaughter Solution (after Rep. Louise Slaughter) and the parliamentarian ruled it out. Another panel of experts would agree with Frumin: the Founding Fathers.

All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills.

That's Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution. Under the Slaughter Solution, ObamaCare wouldn't originate in the House since the House won't have even voted on the actual legislation. Even then the bill still looks doomed to fail. With House Democrats lining up against the president on a variety of issues, Rep. James Clyburn admitted yesterday that ObamaCare still doesn't have the votes to pass. But if it does, Obama's signature piece of legislation will become law unconstitutionally and in defiance of Senate rules.