I'll give Democrats this: Since they know the media will embrace their narratives, they're very good at coming up with absurd narratives to cover for their own shameless obstructionism. Let Republicans pull crap like this against Obama, and they're the "party of no" or racists or whatever. Democrats do it?
Oh, it's to "protest secrecy."
I kid you not:
Democrats plan to slow action on all Senate business, a move designed to protest their frustration with the GOP’s secretive efforts to pass legislation that would repeal and replace key parts of the Affordable Care Act.
On Monday night, Democrats will “begin objecting to all unanimous consent requests,” according to a senior Senate Democratic aide. The procedural tool will allow the minority party to block orders that are often used to speed up consideration of legislation and nominees. While Democrats lack the votes to stop Republicans from passing their health care bill, objecting to unanimous consent requests would mean roll-call votes are required for matters such as allowing any Senate committee of any kind to meet for more than two hours. Senate Republicans have sought to minimize public disagreement with their measure by holding all health care discussions behind closed doors as Senate leaders race to craft a bill that could garner the 50 votes needed for passage. Some Senate Republicans have set an informal June 30 deadline to pass their version of the health care bill, leaving 10 legislative days to do so. “If Republicans won’t relent and debate their health care bill in the open for the American people to see, then they shouldn’t expect business as usual in the Senate,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Monday.
On the floor, Democrats plan to make several unanimous consent requests in an attempt to force Senate Republicans to hold a hearing on their health care overhaul, and Democratic senators plan to give floor speeches until late Monday that lambast Republicans for drafting their legislation in private. “Republicans are drafting this bill in secret because they’re ashamed of it, plain and simple,” Schumer said.This has nothing whatsoever to do with how the bill is being drafted. The party that gave us HillaryCare doesn't care about openness is legislating and never has. This is about one thing and one thing only, which is embarrassing the Republicans and trying anything and everything they can to stop the bill from passing the Senate. One of the tradeoffs of using reconciliation to pass a bill is that, while you don't have to meet a 60-vote threshold to get to cloture, you do have to allow senators to offer unlimited amendments on the floor, and you have to vote on those amendments. Democrats are going to take advantage of that rule by offering endless amendments - many of them completely absurd and irrelevant - solely for the purpose of gumming up the works.
Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain
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