A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

27 April 2015

Young legislators, old and tired ideas

Republican State Rep. Sarah Laszloffy represents House District 53 (map), where live some of the most conservative people in Montana. Last week she wrote an oped in the Billings Gazette, signed by several other young GOP legislators, denouncing fellow Republican legislators she calls “liberal,” bemoaning the modest expansion of Medicaid (SB-405), and making this remarkable assertion:

This behavior by our fellow legislators sets a dangerous precedent for future sessions. There are some issues that are so big and important to our constituents that they should require a supermajority to pass. Medicaid expansion is one of them.

One can argue whether a supermajority should be required to approve Medicaid expansion, but one cannot argue that a supermajority is required by Montana’s constitution. That’s because our constitution requires only a simple majority to pass a bill:

Article V, Section 11. Bills. (1) A law shall be passed by bill which shall not be so altered or amended on its passage through the legislature as to change its original purpose. No bill shall become law except by a vote of the majority of all members present and voting.

Although the constitution (Article V, Section 10.1) gives each house of the legislature the power to “make rules for its proceedings,” it does not give the legislature the power to adopt rules that are de facto amendments to the constitution. Supermajorities must be specified by the constitution, and are. Therefore, the MT House rules that require a supermajority for blasting a bill out of committee are unconstitutional.

Furthermore, I do not believe that Montana’s constitution gives the legislature the power to pass by a simple majority a law that requires another law to be passed by a supermajority. Many legislators, of course, now and in the past, consider a prohibition against making legislative rules and passing laws that are contrary to Montana’s constitution an inconvenience that can be ignored, and often is.

Rep. Laszloffy also asserts there are Republican legislators who are liberal. Perhaps by her standards some are. But by any reasonable standard, there are only two classes of Republicans in Montana’s legislature: teabagger ideologues who want to limit government to repelling foreign armies, jailing miscreants, and enforcing private contracts; and 10–12 conservatives who still believe in public education and a public health system. But SB-405 proves there are no Republican liberals. Real liberals would have expanded Medicaid as per the Affordable Care Act, and kept private insurers and third party administrators from getting one cent of the money.

At Intelligent Discontent, Don Pogreba devoted a short paragraph in his ICYMI wrap-up to Laszloffy’s essay. At The Western Word, Mike Brown devoted several paragraphs, Sore Losers, to her essay — and, her attitude.