Attacking House Democrats over efforts to finalize passage of health care reform legislation, Glenn Beck offered flawed analysis that completely misconstrued the legislative process. Beck claimed that Democratic leaders were unable to enact reform through the budget reconciliation process and were turning instead to a House rule sometimes called “deem and pass.” But Beck completely missed the point: the deem and pass procedure reportedly under consideration would be used as part of the reconciliation process, not as an alternative.

From Beck's radio show:

BECK: Remember: First, they wanted to do it by the -- the right way. First, Barack Obama says, “You know, there's no way you can do this with 51 votes, because you won't be able to rule like that. You won't be able to rule like that. You won't be able to govern like that. So we can't do it with 51 votes.” Well, they couldn't do it with 60. Now, they're just trying to do it with 51 votes. They couldn't get 51 votes. So then they decide, “Well, we'll just do reconciliation. We'll just pass it by the House.” Well, no, no. Then that wouldn't work. So then what? So then they go from reconciliation to deem and pass, the Slaughter rule.

Beck's claim that reconciliation means "[w]e'll just pass it by the House" is absurd. The budget reconciliation process requires majorities in both chambers of Congress to pass specific legislation. The House Committee on Rules explains the House's role in the process:

The Budget Act specifies that Congressional Action on reconciliation legislation should be completed by June 15. It provides specific expedited procedures and restrictions for floor consideration of reconciliation measures, to ensure timely completion. In the House, reconciliation legislation is normally brought from the Budget Committee to the Rules Committee, which grants a special rule governing floor consideration of the measure.

It is that rulemaking process that permits House leaders to invoke the deem and pass rule, formally known as a self-executing rule. A 2006 CRS report explained that the self-executing rule “means that when the House adopts a rule it also simultaneously agrees to dispose of a separate matter, which is specified in the rule itself.” CRS continued:

For instance, self-executing rules may stipulate that a discrete policy proposal is deemed to have passed the House and been incorporated in the bill to be taken up. The effect: neither in the House nor in the Committee of the Whole will lawmakers have an opportunity to amend or to vote separately on the “self-executed” provision. It was automatically agreed to when the House passed the rule.

Now, in the case of efforts to finalize passage of health care reform legislation -- which has passed both the House and Senate -- House leaders reportedly are considering invoking the self-executing rule as part of the reconciliation process. Not as an alternative to it. The Washington Post's Ezra Klein explains:

They only vote on the reconciliation package. But their vote on the reconciliation package functions as a vote on the Senate bill. The difference is semantic, but the bottom line is this: When the House votes on the reconciliation fixes, the Senate bill is passed, even if the Senate hasn't voted on the reconciliation fixes, and even though the House never specifically voted on the Senate bill.

See? Call it “deem and pass” or the “Slaughter solution” -- for that matter, call it the “Gingrich solution” to commemorate record use of the rule under Newt's leadership -- but regardless, it would function as an element of the reconciliation process.

Perhaps it's time to give up on trying to reconcile the internal logic of Beck's attacks.