The headline at Michelle Malkin's site implies something very daunting:

The Donkey Congress is allergic to debate

Conservative stalwart Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint blew the whistle  last  week on a new report from the Congressional Research Service showing that 94 percent of bills passed in thee Dem-controlled Senate have been rammed through without debate or vote.

Via CNS:

Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) dismissed Democratic claims of obstructionism and expressed outrage last week over a government report that shows the majority of bills that have passed in the Democrat-controlled Senate of the 110th Congress have done so without any debate or even a vote.

“The U.S. Senate has a nine percent approval rating, because the American people believe that much of our work is done in secret with no debate, no transparency and no accountability,” Coburn told reporters at press conference Wednesday at the Capitol.

This clearly implies outrage over a procedure where a motion or bill is passed using Unanimous Consent.  This is clearly blamed on the Democrat leadership:

“This report shows that the reality is worse than the public’s fears. Instead of encouraging open debate, I’m disappointed that Majority Leader Reid often chooses secrecy or demagoguery,” he added.

Coburn was referring to a non-partisan study released on June 10 by the government’s Congressional Research Service (CRS), which indicates that 855 of the 911 bills passed by the Senate of the 110th Congress have been streamlined by Democratic Party leadership with a procedural tactic known as Unanimous Consent (UC), which requires no debate or even a vote.

So roughly 94%.

The idea sound fairly damning.  Are Democrats really so underhanded now that they have control?

Not really.

The first thing I noted in examining the PDF file is that quite a few of the measures passed are meaningless procedural matters:

S.Res.1 A resolution informing the President of the United States that a quorum of each House is assembled.

S.Res.2 A resolution informing the House of Representatives that a quorum of the Senate is assembled.

S.Res.3 A resolution to elect Robert C. Byrd, a Senator from the State of West Virginia, to be President pro tempore of the Senate of the United States.

S.Res.4 A resolution notifying the President of the United States of the election of a President pro tempore.

S.Res.5 A resolution notifying the House of Representatives of the election of a President pro tempore. 

In fact the majority of them are simple matter that are advisory, laudatory or otherwise non substantive.  A quick scan of the PDF did find some matters that likely had fiscal impact, but I did not find anything massively troubling.

I have to allow that I only did a quick scan, but still, most of the matters were trivial

At issue really is the accusation that this can be used to pass major items without debate:

From Sen. DeMint’s office:

The 855 bills that have been secretly passed spend more than $9 billion, though a final total is not available because many of the bills were rushed through before a cost analysis could be performed.

Senator DeMint: “It would surprise many Americans to learn that the ‘World’s Greatest Deliberative Body’ passes the overwhelming majority of legislation without any debate at all. Democrats think they are entitled to pass bills without debate or votes, and they’ve tried to ram them through right before recess to pressure us to give up. But, Senators shouldn’t fear debate on these important bills. It’s in the best traditions of our republic to demand the Senate actually do its job and have a public debate on bills that expand government and increase the burden on taxpayers. Senator Reid can complain all he wants, but Republicans represent millions of Americans whose voices are being silenced by Democrat strong-arm tactics.”

It sounds horrible, but in reality it is not that insidious.  The document provided includes a short description of how UC works:

It is often possible for the Senate to approve a measure by unanimous consent, with few or no amendments and with virtually no discussion. Nearly every day the Senate is in session, the majority and minority leaders consult to identiffy bills and resolutions that have been “cleared” by the Senators in both parties. A measure is considered cleared if no Senator has responded to a party leadership request to inform leadership that he or she is opposed to passage of the measure without debate.

This implies that a matter cannot be cleared for UC unless the leadership of both parties concurs that there none of their members are wanting more debate.

In fact the rules regarding UC can actually be used to create gridlock, not avoid it, by demanding debate on trivial matters:

With the Senate’s traditional August recess about to start, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevv.) has repeatedly accused Republicans, however, and especially Coburn and DeMint, of blocking UC on legislation that he says is critical to the well-being of many Americans.

I can see the strategic advantage to both parties for using this as a delaying tactic, so the fact is that this is looking like just another aspect of our Congressional system that encourages delay, gridlock and partisan games.

So yes, while I would guess this could be accused, the fact is that the accusation that 94% of all bills pass this way does not mean they did not get heard and approved by both parties, and I have not seen direct proof that the Democrats are taking advantage of the procedure. 

While the two sides are pointing fingers at each other as being obstructionist, in reality, they both are.   That's politics as normal in DC, and it always has been. 

So with all due respect to Michelle, I think this is much ado over nothing.

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