An Internet hub with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, indies, centrists, moderates, and right
Deem and pass: Should I get a life?
Kevin Drum, on deem and pass:
If you have a life, you don’t care about the subject of this post and have never heard of it.
Damn it. I heard about “deem and pass” and I even sort of care about it. And I’m annoyed with Kevin for letting people know I don’t have a life. (Well, I have a wife, but that’s neither here nor there.)
Anyhow, here’s Kevin’s bottom line:
Like it or not, process has become a big issue as healthcare has dragged along into its second year, and the public really does seem to have grown weary of endless procedural wankery. What’s more, there’s no benefit…In fact, it will probably just make things worse. They still will have voted for the Senate bill, but it’ll look like they’re trying to hide the fact.
You might say they voted for it at the same time they voted against it.
Cross-posted at Conventional Folly
4 Responses to “Deem and pass: Should I get a life?”
I guess I have half a life. I had never heard of deem and pass but I do care.
A couple of things about this 'you need to get a life' meme are making me chuckle.
First, the average person knows whether or not he/she cares about something and the condescension of being told that someone else knows that you don't care about it is likely to make you care a bit more, not less, about the 'process'.
Second, I can't help but be reminded of what every mother knows- when the kids get a little too quiet in the other room and you call in to ask what is going on, if they all respond with angelic voices “Nothing!”, then you know you'd better get in there quickly to find out what they're really up to.
This mostly matters to those who would only vote for the bill if their electorate doesn't find out. However, most of those people will be asked “how would have you have voted” when the election comes. So in the end they either have to fess up or lie. If they lie, in this day and age, I'm sure that someone will point out how the bill passed even though a majority claims they would have voted against it.
Moments ago, I made a post about how I think the GOP & Teabaggers sound stupider and stupider as they go along. Well, the Dems sound less and less credible as well with all the procedural nonsense.
The GOP was wrongwrongwrongwrong for using process chicanery to kill health care. The Dems are equally wrongwrongwrongwrong for using process chicanery to revive it.
This is George Lucas' version of a republic, not the Founders. *sigh*