Posted by
Defend America on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 7:49:22 AM
When legerdemain is used to pass an unpopular bill
By: Michael Barone
Senior Political Analyst
December 23, 2009
It's
time to blow the whistle on two erroneous statements that opponents and
proponents of the health care legislation being jammed through Congress
have been making. Republicans have been saying that never before has
Congress passed such an unpopular bill with such important
ramifications by such a narrow majority. Barack Obama has been saying
that passage of the bill will mean that the health care issue will be
settled once and for all.
The Republicans and Obama are both wrong. But perhaps they can be
forgiven because the precedent for Congress passing an unpopular bill
is an old one, and the issue it addressed has long been settled, though
not by the legislation in question.
That legislation was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Its lead
sponsor was Stephen A. Douglas, at 41 in his eighth year as senator
from Illinois, the most dynamic leader of a Democratic Party that had
won the previous presidential election by 254 electoral votes to 42.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/When-legerdemain-is-used-to-pass-an-unpopular-bill-8675305-79940422.html