Seventy Votes
Orrin Hatch:
"But, look, if you pass a health care bill that involves one-sixth of the whole American economy and you don‘t get at least 70 votes, meaning bipartisan votes, you‘re not doing what‘s right for the American people. And I can tell you right now, Doug Elmendorf said that it‘s virtually next to impossible to be able to have a public option which would be a level playing field."
You heard it here first. Whatever happened to majority rule, the way Congress passed all of the Bush giveaways to the rich, with 51 or 52 votes? Of course for Republicans, if you can't win fair and square, you scream and bully and if that doesn't work, you cheat.
Too bad people like Harry Reid and Max Baucus can't figure that out, after thirty years experience.
"But, look, if you pass a health care bill that involves one-sixth of the whole American economy and you don‘t get at least 70 votes, meaning bipartisan votes, you‘re not doing what‘s right for the American people. And I can tell you right now, Doug Elmendorf said that it‘s virtually next to impossible to be able to have a public option which would be a level playing field."
You heard it here first. Whatever happened to majority rule, the way Congress passed all of the Bush giveaways to the rich, with 51 or 52 votes? Of course for Republicans, if you can't win fair and square, you scream and bully and if that doesn't work, you cheat.
Too bad people like Harry Reid and Max Baucus can't figure that out, after thirty years experience.
Comments
Of course, if they want Obamacare, they'd need a constitutional amendment, aka 2/3 vote, then a passing vote on the bill.
Specifically what doctrine and I'll tell you whether they did it constitutionally or not.
Here's how it goes. If Congress has the power to do it, then they don't need to amend the Constitution. If Congress doesn't have the power to do it, i.e. mandate health insurance or create a government option, then they need to amend the Constitution to enable this power.
"But I guess Republicans, being the moral party, have a right to more democracy than the rest of us."
Republic? More specifically, a Constitutional Republic.