OK, the Senate passed HR 3590 last week, but Gene Healy at Cato has some great observations:
In [the] Washington Post, E.J. Dionne cursed “the bizarre habits of the Senate,” which show that “we are no longer a normal democracy.” In a “normal democracy,” apparently, you get to ram through a scheme that the public opposes 52 to 38 percent, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average. …
If democracy means anything, it has to mean that the people’s representatives comprehend the laws they pass and expect us to follow. Yet when Coburn asked that each senator certify that he or she has read and understands the bill, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., objected: “I cannot certify that members of the Senate will understand what they’re reading” (!)….
Krugman points out that the 60-vote requirement for cloture “appears nowhere in the Constitution.” While he’s got the document out, maybe he can enlighten the Times‘ readers as to where Congress finds the power to force all Americans to buy health insurance.
Read the whole article in the Washington Examiner: In defense of Senate ‘obstructionism’.
