[QUOTE="Abbeten"]would the leadership negotiating with the white house and senate really not be considered normal workings of the house?whipassmt
Well when the House passes a bill, then, after the Senate also passes a bill, the House and Senate would go to conference (i.e. House and Senate leadership would select a number of Representatives and Senators to meet together) to come up with a common bill that would then be voted on by the House and the Senate in a floor vote.This is opposed to the practice of having a small handful of politicians, namely a few high-ranking House and Senate members and the President and his officials work out secret deals. Instead of this procedure, in "regular order" the full panoply of the elected representatives of the U.S. would publicly put forward their ideas.
The bills still have to go to committee and the rank and file can still put their ideas forward. All that negotiations do is put the leaders who represent the most popular views within their respected platforms together to come up with a bill that serves as an effective compromise, and they then try to "whip" their members into support for the compromise. Their members are under no obligation to support whatever comes out of these compromises.
And the term secret is hilarious. These negotiations don't have to be secret. The only reason they have been under President Obama is because House Republicans would publicly crucify Boehner if they had been out in the open, maybe even revoke his leadership. It's one more example of how radical politicians who represent an extreme fringe have hijacked the Republican Party. The speaker of the House can't even advocate for his own positions anymore or negotiate in good faith, he's a puppet for his Tea Party overlords.
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