When the Constitution was recited at the U.S. House of Representatives last January, 2011, 221 members must have been snoozing when one of their colleagues recited Article 1, Section 7.
Or maybe they were being advised by Antonin “the-Federalist-Papers-are-sacred” Scalia.
Whatever moved them, a majority of the House voted for a bill on April 1 that is blatantly unconstitutional.
All of its supporters are Republicans, the very ones who insisted that the Constitution and its 27 amendments be recited when Congress opened its current legislative action.
To their credit, 15 Republicans voted against H.R. 1255 as did all Democrats. Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican, said that the provision in question “violates my conscience and the Constitution, and I cannot vote for it.”
Every American citizen should be offended, and so should the millions of foreigners who envy our society and look up to the United States as a model of democracy.
Our system is not perfect, but the 221 representatives who voted for the bill cheapened our way of doing the people’s business.
H.R. 1255 calls for a fiscal year 2011 spending bill, already passed by the House, to become law if the Senate would not pass a spending law by April 6.
There is a reason that the bill failed to become law after April 6 - the Constitution, which the Republican majority recited last January. The Constitution requires that a bill can only become law after both houses pass a law and the president signs it, or the president refuses to sign and both houses override his veto by a two-thirds vote.
The provision reads, “Every bill which shall have passed The House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a Law, be presented to the President of the United States: If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it.
“If after such reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a law.”
Scalia, the Supreme Court justice who calls himself an “originalist,” has recommended that Americans read the Federalist Papers to understand the Constitution’s meaning. Three constitutional scholars warn against reliance on the Federalist Papers. Even a layperson can recognize why they consider the Papers to be a sales pitch, in so many words, to convince New Yorkers to ratify the Constitution.
In the less than genteel debates over the April 1 budget bill, The Hill newspaper quoted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor saying, “Funding the government at the levels passed by House Republicans might be what Senator Reid wants, but surely even he would agree that it’s a better alternative than shutting down the government.” (The Hill, 4/1/11)
Cantor, a Republican from the Richmond, Va., area, was referring to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Some Democratic representatives recommended that Cantor and his flock read children’s books on the Constitution such as “House Mouse, Senate Mouse,” according to The Hill. The ever-snarky Anthony Weiner of Queens said, “It’s a much thinner book and it rhymes.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco interjected the most mature comment when she declared, “What you see on the floor today is no example of democracy in action. It’s silly. The Republican leadership is asking its members to make a silly vote.”
I beg to differ with her assessment. This was democracy in action. Not for your average mouse, but moreso for 221 horse’s asses.
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