Above the Law: "Deem and pass" sidesteps democracy

Just when I thought I had heard every ludicrous thing the government of the United States could do, I get slapped upside the head with the "Deem and Pass" rule, also known as the "Slaughter House Rule." What is going on?

Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution says that in order for a bill to become a law, it shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate. Is this not clear? Is the language not concise enough?

The "Deem and Pass" rule is, in effect, a rule set in place to help expedite House action in disposing of Senate amendments to House-passed bills, and has been used in the past in this capacity. My problem is the way that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was trying to use this rule to pass something as serious as the Health Care Bill. This is blatant abuse of this rule.

The "Deem and Pass" rule attempts to allow the House to pass the Senate bill, plus a bill amending it, with a single vote. The senators would then vote only on the amendatory bill. But this means that no single bill will have passed both houses in the same form. If Congress can now decide that the House can vote for one bill and the Senate can vote for another, and the final result can be some hybrid of the two, then we have abandoned one of the main checks and balances of our governmental system.

More importantly to me, we would be spitting on our Constitution because of a desire to further President Obama's "legacy" that is so important to him.

It is not that I believe that health care should not be reformed; I simply believe it should be done in the democratic process that was established by our forefathers some 234 years ago. To attempt to abuse our system and force an issue that everyone is so divided on makes me absolutely furious.

How can any of us expect something so important to bare good fruit if the seed that was used was bad to begin with?

I am not partial to any particular political affiliation, but the way the Democrats handled this issue was ridiculous. At the time this issue was at hand a couple of weeks ago, Nancy Pelosi actually said, "We have to pass the bill, so that you can find out what is in it."

I feel like my brain is going to explode! Yes, she actually said those words.

Have we gotten so desperate in this country for political gain and legacy that we will abandon the things that make this country so great? The processes we have used for over 200 years are there for good reason and whenever anyone tries to step on my Constitution, I will defend it until my last breath, because I believe in this country and the ideals it represents. Please do not allow any political party in the future to use this rule against you.