Obama And Reid Subvert Legislative Process In Order To Cast Unfounded Blame On Republicans

There are several things about what the Democrats did regarding the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut that ought to ALARM us. They should bug any American who really cares about maintaining the integrity of our Democracy, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

You need to understand how the legislative process is supposed to work in order to appreciate the subversion going on. Briefly, here's the process that Democrats subverted:

1. Either House or Senate body may start their version of needed legislation.
2. Once the bill is passed in the first body it is sent to the other body.
3. The second body either approves it as-is, amends it and send it back to the first one, rejects it and does nothing more, or rejects it and sends back a totally different version of their own.
4. If the legislation is not dead or signed as-is from the first body that means they both want some form of it passed but they're too far apart to agree yet. If they each have their own separate versions then it is supposed to go to a 'conference' committee to iron out a compromise between the two versions.
5. Once the conference committee, composed of representatives from both the House and Senate, has a version on which they mutually agree, then it goes back to both bodies for passage.
6. The back-and-forth process can continue for multiple iterations until it finally does pass in both bodies.
7. Then it goes to the president who can sign or veto it as he/she chooses.

If you need proof or further information regarding this legislative process, this link provides it: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/legprocess.htm

In the case of this payroll tax reduction extension legislation, both houses produced their own versions and neither agreed to the other body's version. At that point both of the bills were supposed to go to conference where the various differences are worked out into one bill that provides a fair balance of 'gain' and 'loss' for each body. In fact, that's what Speaker Boehner asked to be done. THAT DID NOT HAPPEN THIS TIME.

Both House and Senate produced their own versions of the extension and then the president said the House MUST accept the Senate's version. In other words, the president picked which one he would sign instead of a conference committee producing one that balanced both bodies' interests.

Think about that. Both House and Senate produced their own versions of the needed legislation and THE PRESIDENT PICKED(!) which one he'd sign under threat of doing nothing and blaming doing nothing on Republicans. The constitution did NOT set up the process to work this way!!! The PRESIDENT HAS NO SUCH AUTHORITY to pick whether the House's or Senate's version HE WILL ALLOW to come to his desk.

Think about that in terms of the constitution's balance of powers principles. If anyone has final and ultimate authority it is CONGRESS(!), NOT THE PRESIDENT. While the president can veto a given piece of legislation, his veto can be overcome by a 2/3 veto override vote in both congressional bodies. The constitution was set up specifically to ensure that CONGRESS, NOT ANY ONE MAN/PRESIDENT, has ultimate authority. In this case the president decided that the House MUST sign the Senate's version. He has NO SUCH authority.

Think about the wisdom of that by our founders. They understood that if one person had authority to control legislation it could lead to "tyranny". They said so in various writings! That kind of tyranny is why their ancestors fled their countries of origin in the first place. They were dead-set against one man being able to say which congressional body would have control or which of competing parties would 'win' a particular vote. The constitution makes the president ULTIMATELY subject to congress' authority, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. So what Obama and Reid did this week was a total subversion of the constitution, both in its content and its principles.

And to make matters worse, the president and Democrats in general are being rather successful blaming Republicans for not cooperating better. Boehner in fact asked the president to support a conference action to happen, consistent with the constitution and the president refused! Good grief folks! The president doesn't even have the authority to stop congress from sending it to conference. Republicans were following the constitution. Democrats blamed Republicans for not accepting the Senate version immediately. And Democrats(!) are winning that argument?!?! Does that make any sense?

Perhaps the most important questions to ask you are, how comfortable are you with:

1. Subversion of constitution-based principles and procedures by Obama and Democrat leadership?
2. One person having that much power over what legislation gets passed?
3. One political party subverting the constitution and then blaming the other party?
4. The President playing such partisan games PURELY for the sake of polical gain, not for the sake of getting done what needs to be done?
5. Americans having so little understanding of the constitution and its principles that they're not even aware of how the constitution-based processes are being subverted?
6. Americans having so little understanding of the constitution and its principles that they have no problem with one person having so much control over congress?
7. Americans having so little understanding of the constitution and its principles that they don't understand why it's important that the president should not be able to tell congress what to do (without declaring a state of emergency)?