Funny thing - the Communists got in a pickle because they couldn't get their act together last year.
They thought everything was going their way, that the Nation really did want the change that POTUS would bring.
[Sidebar: I will from this moment forth refer to the miscreant that was elected President last November as POTUS. We can have a little fun here - and the beauty is the Communists will think we're actually respecting the office. Here's why I will call him POTUS. POTUS = Piece Of The Ultimate S***. (If someone can think up a clean version of the "S" word that fits, ok, but right now it'll have to do.)]
So, the Communists were willing to play ping pong between the two houses until they got common language was had between the House and Senate.
They thought they had all the time in the world.
Until the 8.3 magnitude earthquake that was Scott Brown.
That changed everything. They had a problem. The problem was this:
1. The Senate passed a bill knowing the House would amend it and send it back.
2. When it got sent back, the bill would likely be filibustered by the Republicans.
3. The Communists would break filibuster with their 60 votes; the last question (the bill) would come to the floor and pass.
4. Scott Brown got elected.
5. The Senate bill is still in the House - oops.
6. The House doesn't like the Senate bill, but if it amends the Senate bill it has to back for another vote in the Senate.
7. If the bill goes back to the Senate, the Communists can only muster 59 votes for cloture, the last question (the bill) never makes it to a vote.
8. Therefore, the bill cannot come back to the Senate.
9. But it can't die in the House, either.
10. So, the House leadership agrees that the Senate bill should be passed without amendment (sending it to the President as identical language was passed by the House and Senate).
11. But House Communists don't like the bill - so a sidecar bill is proposed that will "fix" the Senate bill.
12. Last Sunday, the House voted to amend the Intolerable Act (even though it wasn't yet law! - by the way, don't look for the Supreme Court to intervene on that issue, they don't usually smack Congress on that point, preferring to look at the sum total of legislative output, but it's still intriguing as it shows the length of depravity they went to so as to pass this monstrosity). It then voted to approve the Intolerable Act.
13. The Intollerable Act goes to the President for signature; the sidecar "fix" bill goes to the Senate.
14. The sidecar bill includes just enough changes to apprporiations to be called a "reconciliation" package - thus circumventing the normal 60-vote cloture requirement (budget bills cannot be filibustered under Senate rules).
15. Reconciliation bills normally go in with a 12-hour debate limit, but are allowed an UNLIMITED number of amendments.
That is where we are. Step 15. The sidecar bill is bad too - it has even more taxes than the original one (what a surprise </sarcasm>). But the Republicans cannot stop it, but they can attempt to amend it. Two things here:
A - The Communists accept an amendment, any one - and it goes back to the House, so they won't. But the GOP cannot keep the game up forever (theoretically they could, but blocking the people's business begins to become politically unpalatable after a fashion), so they go to "B".
B - The Communists block all amendments, which means the GOP will offer amendments that put the Communists on record for things that are politically bad for them - such as...
...The Communists in the Senate are now on record opposing an amendment that would have forbade the distribution of viagra to incarcerated sex offenders.
(Among others, but that ones a hoot!)
We can't stop it, but we can make them squirm!
I question if the paper the muslim signed is actually now the law of the land. It is unconstitutional, is was not read and studied before it was pushed through the democrats
for approval (votes).