Lambs to the Slaughter

Thank you, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter.

You’ve come up with a parliamentary maneuver–“deem and pass”–reeking of evasiveness and trickery that your members are going to have to embrace. But it gets better! The point of “deem and pass” is to allow Representatives to vote directly only on the reconciliation “fixes” rather than on the Senate bill (which will be deemed to be passed if reconciliation passes). But the reconciliation “fixes” make the Senate bill even more politically unattractive.