… that Republicans on the Hill aren’t signing on as co-sponsors of repeal bills. How about bringing those bills to the floor for a vote just before the election?
… such a great issue for Republicans in November, that fewer than half of House Republicans and Senators have signed up as co-sponsors of repeal bills filed by King and Bachmann in the House and DeMint in the Senate.
Maybe Pelosi and Reid should bring repeal bills to the floor for a vote just before the pre-election recess. How many Republicans will want to vote to deny health coverage to sick children just before they face the voters?
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
If I remember correctly, there is some precedent for that. Rep. Charles Rangel, in order to make a point about the disproportionate number of poor and minority citizens in the enlisted ranks of the military, sponsored legislation that would draft both men and women between the ages of 18-26 starting in June 2005. Republicans, who then controlled the House of Representatives, brought the bill to the floor in order to defuse the issue, and it was defeated 402-3 in the House, with Rangel voting against his own bill.
I think forcing a vote is a great idea, and one that both sides have done in the past to make the other side put up or shut up.