MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked Sen. Bachmann, “Have you been hypnotized tonight?” (Photo Credit: Public Domain/U.S. Congress/Wikipedia; ThinkStock)

Election 2010 has come to a close, and as expected, there was a Republican resurgence in the House of Representatives, capped by Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) wresting Speaker of the House honors from Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) One memorable and unexpected moment was Chris Matthews’ MSNBC interview with victorious incumbent Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), writes Mediaite. After Bachmann dodged a question regarding subpoena power and Republicans going forward with investigations against Democrats for un-American activities several times, Matthews cut through Bachmann’s party-line response with perhaps the funniest line to come out of Election 2010: “Senator Bachmann, have you been hypnotized tonight?”

Michele Bachmann wanted no part of her own witch hunt

Election 2010 was an evening of victory for Republicans, so perhaps it is understandable that Michele Bachmann didn’t want to spoil the mood. As she told Matthews time and time again, the Republicans feel that “the American people have spoken” and that jobs and lower taxes are paramount now. However, Bachmann’s failure to even acknowledge Chris Matthews’ subpoena power question made for hilarious (some would say cringe-worthy) political television. A feisty commentator on such shows as “Hardball,” Matthews simply couldn’t let Michele Bachmann’s trance-like response go.

“Has someone hypnotized you? Because no matter what I ask you, you give the same answer,” he said. His MSNBC co-anchors – Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and others – could be heard chortling in the background.

‘Not quite so tingly on your leg’

Once Sen. Michele Bachmann (hypnotized or not) realized she could no longer press rewind and still save face in the interview, she made reference to the American people “coming out of their trance,” which was at least a partial recovery, suggested the pundits. Then she said to Matthews, “I think people are thrilled tonight. I imagine that thrill is probably maybe not quite so tingly on your leg anymore; I’m not sure about that.”

After the interview was complete, Matthews explained the tingly leg reference as follows. Apparently, during Chris Matthews’ coverage of the 2008 presidential election, he allegedly exclaimed that he felt a “tingle of excitement” when Obama spoke. Matthews denies having used the word “tingle,” but he does acknowledge having been excited.

Sources

Mediaite

Hypnosis and the tingle

Sorry, no COLA to Social Security next year, either. (Photo Credit: Public Domain/U.S. Government/Wikipedia)

Since Congress established the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security payments in 1975, only twice have Social Security payments actually failed to rise. According to the Associated Press, 2010 was the first year without a COLA for Social Security, and 2011 will be the second. The Social Security Administration blames the lack of a COLA on inflation rates being too low.

Congress working to make up for lack of Social Security COLA

More than 58 million American retirees and disabled people depend on Social Security, and all of them look forward to the annual COLA. In response to what will be the second straight year without a raise in benefits across the board, the House of Representatives plans a November vote on a bill that would give each Social Security recipient $250. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes to move the bill through the House, but the AP indicates that there is already stiff opposition in the Senate. Such news will no doubt add to the already heavy burden many retired Americans carry. Savings and home values are still low thanks to the recession, and the cost of living continues to rise as COLAs fall by the wayside.

“We’re a little bit upset because our bills are going up and our Social Security isn’t,” said retiree Betty Dizik, 83, to the AP. Dizik’s only source of income is a $1,200 month Social Security check. And her situation is far from unique. The average Social Security check is $1,072 per month. The Social Security Administration also indicates that 64 percent of those who received Social Security compensation in 2008 depended upon it as their sole income.

The last Social Security COLA was a big one

Social Security is currently supported by a 6.2 percent payroll tax paid by workers and employers. The maximum wage cap for which the tax still applies is $106,800. With the last Social Security COLA in January 2009, payments went up 5.8 percent, the largest increase in 27 years, reports the AP. An increase in energy prices led to that abnormally large COLA.

By law, a Social Security COLA will not occur again until consumer prices rise above 2008 levels. Social Security Administration anticipates that this will occur in 2011, leading to a 1.2 percent COLA that will hit in January 2012.

Sources:

Associated Press

AP coverage of COLA-less Social Security

I'm not looking at Dennis Kucinich in this photo, either.

The battle for health care reform may be nearing a vote in the House, as President Obama has predicted. Now a major stumbling block has been removed, as Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich has changed his stance on the current version of the health care bill, which brings to mind credit repair – for his image.

It remains to be seen what it was that swayed the former critic of the bill, but the New York Daily News reports that pressure from the president and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have had a lot to do with it. They apparently put the screws to him in his home state of Ohio this week.

Dennis Kucinich says yes, but with reservations

While his vote brings Nancy Pelosi one closer to the 216 needed to pass health care reform, Dennis Kucinich won’t say that the version of the health care bill that’s on the table is perfect.

“I have taken this fight farther than many in Congress have been willing to take it,” Kucinich said in a statement to the media. “In the past week, it’s become clear that the vote on the final health bill will be very close.”

Then he said he didn’t want to be the one to deep-six the bill

That sounds like Dennis Kucinich doesn’t want to draw someone’s wrath. Who might that be? President Obama? Speaker Pelosi? His wife Elizabeth could also be a culprit.

The big question is – how will we pay for this health care bill?

Depending upon who you ask, we could either have it covered AND reduce the deficit or continue to pay for this many generations later, saddling them with tax debt. Dennis Kucinich hasn’t forgotten this part of the equation, which is most likely why he said that he has “taken a detour through supporting this bill,” and that he will continue to seek more “robust” reform. Whatever scores points with the English rose, Dennis.

(Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65235746@N00/ / CC BY 2.0)

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Nancy Pelosi (Photo: Wikipedia)

With the health care bill dragging into its second year of debate, there is talk from house leader Nancy Pelosi that a “procedural action” called Deem and Pass may be used to move the health care bill through the House. Half vote and half procedural action, the Deem and Pass action – otherwise known as the “Slaughter rule” – has raised blood pressures on both sides of the aisle, but unless you are a career politician, deem and pass can get more confusing than no fax payday loans very quickly. So here’s the basic primer on deem and pass for all the non-politicians out there.

What is deem and pass?

The term “deem and pass” actually refers to a rule of procedure in Congress known as “self-executing.” A full description of the rules pertaining to the self-executing rule/deem and pass is available on the house web site here. In general, deem and pass can be used as a two-for-one procedure. The house Speaker can deem amendments or changes to have passed the House, and incorporate those changes in a bill to be taken up.

Originally, deem and pass was used to expedite one chamber accepting the amendments to a bill passed by the other house. Rather than individually voting on each amendment and then on the completed bill with the amendments, which could sometimes take days, the chamber could simply “deem and pass” the amendments to move the bill into reconciliation (where the House and Senate versions of a bill are reconciled with one another before being sent to the White House).

Is Deem and Pass constitutional?

Since the suggestion that deem and pass may be used to pass the House amendments to the Senate health care package, many opponents have questioned the constitutionality of the deem and pass procedure. In The American Spectator, Representative McCotter claimed this procedure would “violate constitutionally prescribed procedures”.

However, in 2007, the United States Court of Appeals in D.C. ruled on this exact question in Public Citizen v. US District Court. The ruling is a 64-part discussion of the constitutionality of deem and pass – and it is ruled constitutional. Nancy Pelosi had actually joined Public Citizen on that case, along with Louise Slaughter. So yes, deem challenge was determined to be constitutional just a few years ago – the same place it got the name “Slaughter rule.”

Has Deem and Pass been used in the past?

Yes, deem and pass has not only been found to be constitutional, but it has been used multiple times. Deem and pass was first used in 1933 to pass a budgetary amendment and bill. Between 2005 and 2006, the American Enterprise Institute reports that the “self executing rule” – otherwise known as deem and pass – was used at least 35 times. The procedure was used for everything from federal debt consolidation to sweeping rule changes.

How will Deem and Pass be used for the health care bill?

The arguments about deem and pass are now centered on Nancy Pelosi’s plan to use deem and pass to push the health care bill through the house. It has been reported by several sources that this is “an effort to push the bill through without voting on it.” This, however, is not true. As The Atlantic explains, deem and pass will instead combine an up-or-down vote on the procedural parts of the bill with passing the House amendments on the Senate health care bill.