Mark Levin Interviews Paul Ryan

Don't miss Mark Levin's interview with Rep. Paul Ryan yesterday. Ryan dipped into the cloakroom from the House floor yesterday to speak with Levin for about ten minutes on the state of proceedings on Obamacare.

Ryan is so well spoken and so knowledgeable about this issue that Levin has to slow him down sometimes to clarify.

The first point Ryan makes is that he has the CBO working on a letter for him to clarify their scoring of the bill; he points out that the CBO only scores what is actually written and if the bill is written to disguise things like the "Doc Fix" or the $522 Billion they are pulling from Medicare (which is then counted twice), it alters the scoring of the bill. In simple terms, the bill costs a whole lot more that what CBO says it does - some say at least $2 trillion.

Ryan said in this interview yesterday that the Dems still don't have the votes. We need to stay engaged and turn up the heat. This bill can be defeated. This bill, Ryan says, "is not about health care anymore, it's about ideology," and in the Dems world, "ideology trumps economy" because this bill kills jobs.

One thing Ryan is "digging into" is the Bismark Bank provision which appears to exclude just one bank in from the onerous student loan provisions coming in the new bill. Ryan also points out that some 32,000 jobs of people who now process student loans will go away because of this legislation.

It's an informative interview with the obviously fired-up Paul Ryan and worth ten minutes of your morning. Take a listen.

And as a backup, Levin promises that if this thing passes on Sunday, his lawsuit will be in the 24 hour drop box at the courthouse within the hour.

(H/T: Andy McCarthy - NRO The Corner)

Consider the Constitution as So Much Confetti

It doesn't happen often, (and it's almost never good when it happens to a blogger) but I'm almost beyond words at this point over what is happening in Washington.

This afternoon the Republicans forced a vote on the Slaughter House rule, a vote which if successful, would force an actual on the record vote of the Senate Obamacare bill. The bill was defeated 222-203. This means 222 Dems voted to allow the Slaughter House option to proceed. As Ace says, wouldn't these same 222 vote for Obamacare?

222 Dems voted to shred the Constitution. Twenty-eight Democrats broke with their party to vote with Republicans.

Where are we now?

Now we're facing a weekend vote on Obamacare. Do they have the votes? Reports are that they don't at this point. But they're too close for comfort.

Michelle Malkin has the weekend schedule:

Steny Hoyer announces weekend schedule on House floor. House will convene on Saturday at 9am with votes as early as 10am, then on Sunday at 1pm — no votes before 2pm. Possible votes on Monday before 630pm Eastern.

The text of the "wreckonciliation" bill can be found here.

Mark Levin should have his lawsuit ready to go. I suspect he'll get a chance to file it.

Meanwhile, the Constitution is just so much confetti.

Mark Levin Has His Lawsuit Ready

I've been saying, as have many others, that should Obamacare actually land on Obama's desk for signature into law, the first lawsuit will be filed before he reaches the end of the signature line.

And so it goes.

Mark Levin has prepared a lawsuit and is ready to go.

Levin, best-selling author, constitutional and legal scholar and president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, says

“Landmark has already prepared a lawsuit that will be filed in federal court the moment the House acts. Such a brazen violation of the core functions of Congress simply cannot be ignored. Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution is clear respecting the manner in which a bill becomes law. Members are required to vote on this bill, not claim they did when they didn’t. The Speaker of the House and her lieutenants are temporary custodians of congressional authority. They are not empowered to do permanent violence to our Constitution.”

Jeffrey Lord at American Spectator has more.