THE "DEEM PASSED" ISSUE

(h/t Matt Corley at Think Progress)

The wingers are asserting that the House of Representatives cannot include a "deem passed" rule that covers the full Senate health care bill while simultaneously passing changes for reconciliation. This is simply bogus because this procedure has been used many times before, as Karen Tumulty of TIME Magazine pointed out:

Still More on Bending the Rules
Posted by Karen Tumulty Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 6:32 am

The Slaughter Solution? Another name might be the Dreier Doctrine.

Don Wolfensberger, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Congress Project (and former staff director of the House Rules Committee), took a look at this whole business of self-executing rules a few years back. He argues that it's not at all unusual in these partisan times for the House majority to use this convoluted and heavy-handed parliamentary tactic to get a bill through.

The House GOP has used this tactic a number of times:

When Republicans took power in 1995, they soon lost their aversion to self-executing rules and proceeded to set new records under Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). There were 38 and 52 self-executing rules in the 104th and 105th Congresses (1995-1998), making up 25 percent and 35 percent of all rules, respectively. Under Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) there were 40, 42 and 30 self-executing rules in the 106th, 107th and 108th Congresses (22 percent, 37 percent and 22 percent, respectively)