This has the potential to become a very big scandal. The Republican House and Senate leaders are standing by their decision to allow the passage of a constitutionally flawed legislation. It's amazing that they cannot even do the most basic tasks required of them:
House Republicans rejected a call on Thursday for an inquiry into the enactment of a major spending-cut bill that Democrats say is invalid, as a simmering partisan feud over Congressional procedure boiled over.The reality is that the House GOP does not want to take another vote on the legislation that is not only massively flawed technically, but in terms of the content. They cut programs for the poor, students and the elderly. No wonder they do not want another vote -- even if it means their legislation violates the basic tenets of the constitution.
House members voted 219 to 187 along strict party lines to block a request by Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, for an ethics investigation into how the House and Senate ended up approving slightly different versions of legislation signed by President Bush on Feb. 8.
Democrats and others say the legislation, which is intended to save $39 billion over five years, is constitutionally flawed. They say Republican leaders were aware of the difference in the two versions but made no effort to fix it to avoid further votes on a measure that barely passed the House and required a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Dick Cheney in the Senate.
