What, again, is the rush to pass health care reform?

WASHINGTON — As Democrats consider shoving health care reform through the House with a process known as "deem and pass," it is helpful to return to square one and ask: What, again, is the rush?

A year ago, when reform work got under way, Democrats were hell-bent on passing legislation before year's end. Because? There was no way, Democrats believed, that they could accomplish such sweeping reform in an election year.

The Senate bill, which still doesn't have enough votes in the House to pass, barely met the do-or-die deadline, squeaking through on Christmas Eve.

Now the new deadline for a final package is Easter break. This time the thinking goes: If Congress doesn't get a bill to the president before politicians head home, there will be no health care reform for 10 more years. Come April, their energies are needed on other pressing concerns, such as re-election.

Meanwhile, the zoo in the living room demands attention. If the bill is so unpopular that it must be passed long before Election Day, could there be a problem with the legislation?

If health care reform as proposed were so good for the nation, why wouldn't legislators prefer to run on rather than away from that record? If you can't run on the strength of the laws you pass, then either you shouldn't be running or you shouldn't be passing.

Yet, now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is considering new ways to allow House members to pass the Senate bill without actually voting for it so that vulnerable Democrats can deny responsibility for a bill they don't like and don't support. Is this sane?

More to the point, is it constitutional? Some experts say yes; others say no. A thorough vetting would consume this space, but basically, the deem and pass maneuver accomplishes the same thing as if the House approved the Senate bill with tweaks through the reconciliation process. Rather than voting on the Senate bill, the House passes a package of changes to the bill. Thus the bill is "deemed" to have passed. Got that?

The benefit is that House members who don't want to vote for the bill are granted plausible deniability. Come election time, they can say, "Hey, don't look at me, I didn't vote for it." And voters, whom lawmakers apparently deem mentally challenged, will give legislators a pass. This is called implausible optimism.

Deem and pass — or sneak and sprint — may be legal, but is it right?