Yesterday, Eric Cantor, Majority Leader in the US House of Representatives, speaking about the Government Shutdown Prevention Act, said this:
What this bill says is it reiterates again the deadline, and that the Senate should act before the deadline, and that's what the American people are expecting, The bill then says if the Senate does not act, then H.R. 1 [which is the House-passed bill that cuts $61 billion from the budget] will be the law of the land. In addition to that, it says that if all else fails, and the Senate brings about a shutdown, then members should not get their pay.
Obviously, Mr. Cantor did not learn his lessons in school. My 13-year-old knows that for a bill to become law in Congress it must:
1) Be introduced into either house of Congress.
2) The exact same language must be voted on and passed in both houses.
3) After passage by both Houses, The President of the United States of America must sign it.
4) That's when it gets to become law.
If the President should choose to veto the bill, it would return to both houses of Congress where they would have to override the veto with a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Congress. The President would then sign the Bill...and it is law.
Or
If similar legislation is introduced into both houses of Congress, or if one House of Congress were to amend the language of the other, a Conference Committee would convene to work out the differences, both houses of Congress would then have to approve the Conference Committee language and the bill would then be sent to the President for his signature.
But never, ever, have I heard a Congressman state emphatically as the Republican Majority Leader did yesterday that,
"The bill then says if the Senate does not act, then H.R. 1 will be the law of the land."
Does Mr. Cantor really think the American people like the stunt he and his Republican friends are trying to pull or that they are gullible enough to believe it to be true? We all know, of course, it is just another ploy by Eric Cantor and the Teahadists to pressure the Democratically controlled Senate to bend to the will of the Republicans.
I completely agree that we must do something about our deficits, but even the Preisident's Commission of Fiscal Responsibility said we should wait until 2012 to cut spending,
"Under the Commission proposal, discretionary spending would be frozen at 2011 levels in 2012, and brought down to inflation-adjusted pre-crisis levels in 2013. This path would require serious belt-tightening to begin in 2012, followed by substantial nominal cuts in 2013."
Further, many economists including Mark Zandi (McCain advisor) have said that cutting spending now will lead to massive job losses, and could stop our current recovery and force us into a double-dip recession.
"Significant government spending restraint is vital, but given the still halting economic recovery, it would be counterproductive for that restraint to begin until the economy is creating enough jobs to bring down the still very high unemployment rate," Zandi stated in his report.
How can we trust Mr. Cantor's judgment on any subject when he obviously needs to learn how laws are created. I know my child's civics teacher would be happy to teach him the lesson. Maybe then he could quit embarrassing himself and all of Virginia!
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