Doing a quick Googles on the process turned up a nice quote:

While the constitutionality of enacting a law that has not actually been voted on by both chambers of Congress may be questionable, the House's self-executing rule does allow for it and has been used many times by both parties

IronTom: The article says that they could try this with gun control. So if the main bill bans guns, and the amendment says "we won't ban guns in other countries" and they pass the amendment then they can "imagine", uh, "presume" the rest of the gun ban bill is passed, then.

It's done with a lot of things people don't particularly want to vote for. Raising the debt limit, for instance. Nobody wants to say they voted to raise the debt, but obviously the government will default if they don't. So it's passed under a self-executing rule. Doesn't make its passage any less valid.

What I like best is equating a complex and complicated parliamentary procedure to something simple, understandable to everyone, and not a little inflammatory as a "Jedi mind trick."

It will never happen, but I think we'd be better served by explanations than by simplifications. On both sides.

The devil is always in the details, and the details are left out whenever we reduce.

Weaver95: i'm not sure what will happen if the Democrats use the Senate version of the health care bill and cut out the public option. they'll have a VERY hard time selling that to their own voters, let alone the moderates and independents.

You realize 83% of MoveOn supports the Senate bill. The bloc of base Democratic voters that are upset is extremely small, though vocal. I'd imagine over 75% of Kos members would as well. A great majority of us realize that for all the bill's faults, it's far better to pass it than to scuttle it, both in terms of what's best for the country and what's best for the Democratic party. I think you'll be surprised at how it polls in a few months once people get a chance to learn what's actually in it and how many lies have been told about it.

Weaver95:
which is less than 1% of voters nationwide.

Last I heard MoveOn has over 5 million members. That's hardly 1%, especially of likely voters. It's possibly not that many of them responded to this poll (though it was sent with some urgency to the email list more than once), but I would think liberals disappointed with the health care bill would have been extra-sure to respond to this one, since the poll was what determined whether MoveOn was going to support the bill or not and was advertised as such. I would hope I have just a bit more credibility than you when I say the passage of this bill is going to rally the Democratic base.

"My lord...is that legal?"

"I will make it legal."

Pelosi to use Jedi mind trick to pass health care bill


These aren't the 'roids you're looking for...

*waves hand*

[open window]

This morning America awoke to news of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's latest plan to pass President Obama's unpopular and massive health care "reform" bill...

[close window]

This isn't journalism.

I still get to vote against Harry Reid in November.

What a weak ass Speaker...

you stay classy, SF Examiner.

AdolfOliverPanties: This health care bill is going to bankrupt this country. From Cleveland, where everyone from carpet steamers to accountants will feel the pinch, to Cincinnati, where guys in a bow tie or bums on the street will be hurting, it's a dirty deal, as CNN's Rick Sanchez pointed out. You libs see Obama as God, but he's more like the Devil, making it hot; or Karl Marx, ushering us into a Marxist time of doom, where our shiny cars become rusty, and sad trombones play the blues on every corner.

Godspeed, you magnificent bastard. Godspeed.

This is palin-americaned.

Really? Thats' the angle now? They're gonna come for your guns?

Then why the hell haven't they done it already. They've been using self-executing rules for decades. And Republicans more than Democrats

The one thing I have learned about this is that there is no level of bullshiat or hypocrisy that is too low for a Republican to stoop to.

They are the all-time ethical limbo champions.

Hurray for the champions! You have absolutely no moral compass!

Racht:
Last I heard MoveOn has over 5 million members. That's hardly 1%, especially of likely voters.

No kidding. It's actually 4%. Huge difference.

do dems. really talk about taking guns?? the only people i've heard saying that are republicans as a scare tactic

I read TFA right up until I hit "Obamacare". Then I realized it was some bootstrappy Palin-American's rant on Examiner.

Hopes Pelsoi does the move. Sick of seeing this held up.

As I said in the politics tab discussion on the same topic, I think it's hilarious that Republicans try to demonize the Democrats for using obscure parliamentary rules to get things done (the same rules they've used in the past, by the way), while at the same time they use obscure parliamentary rules to try and block Democratic bills.

Weaver95: it is intellectually dishonest to portray them as such.

I didn't portray them as such. But you claimed Democratic leadership would have an extremely difficult time selling the bill to the Democratic base. I'm completely disagreeing with that, and citing by far the views of the largest Democratic activist organization.

zjbs14:
No kidding. It's actually 4%. Huge difference.

I was discussing them in the context of the Democratic base. I would say they make up a very large percentage of that subgroup.