A day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she is considering a maneuver to bypass an actual vote to approve comprehensive health care reform, Republicans came out firing.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) told a group of reporters she was considering the “self-executing rule” procedure, where the Senate’s health reform bill could pass without a formal vote. Procedurally, the House would vote on a package of amendments to the Senate bill and then under that vote, passage would “deem” the bill approved without a formal vote by legislators.

The move is seen as a way to protect Democrats up for re-election in November from actually giving their stamp of approval to a bill getting mixed reactions from the American public.

Mitch McConnell

In a speech on the Senate floor March 16, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Democratic leaders “have made it perfectly clear that they view their constituents as an obstacle, particularly on the issue of health care.”

Dubbing Democrats’ avoidance of the issue “a vicious cycle,” McConnell cited various ways the party has tried to push health reform past Republicans and the American public, including the latest attempt by Pelosi.

“The plan that Speaker Pelosi has hatched for getting this bill through is to try to pull the wool over the eyes of the public. And it’s jaw-dropping in its audacity,” McConnell said. “Speaker Pelosi can’t get enough of her Democrat majority to vote for the Senate version of this bill. So she and her allies have concocted a way to pass it without actually casting a vote on it — the so-called “Slaughter Solution” in which the Senate bill is, quote, “deemed” to have passed. This way, they’ll claim they never voted for it even though they’ll vote to send it to the President for a signature.”

Forcing a ‘toxic’ bill forward

McConnell added that this “scheme and deem” approach has never been tried on a bill of this scope and is a way Democrats can “keep their fingerprints off a bill” cutting Medicare, raising taxes and insurance premiums, and expanding the role of the federal government.

“Anyone who endorses this strategy will be forever remembered for trying to claim they didn’t vote for something they did,” he said. “It will go down as one of the most extraordinary legislative sleights of hand in history. Make no mistake, this will be a career-defining and a Congress-defining vote.”

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) made similar remarks on the House floor, noting that while Americans are “appalled” by what they’ve seen in the health care debate, “the worst is still ahead.

“The majority plans to force the toxic Senate bill through the House under some controversial trick,” he said. “There is no way to hide from this vote. It will be the biggest vote that most members ever cast. You can run but you can’t hide. Let’s defeat this bill.”

In his daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs did not give the president’s endorsement of the “self-executing rule procedure,” focusing attention on health care reform overall.

“There, I’m sure, are those that are going to want to make this about the legislative process rather than the heart-wrenching stories of people…,” he said. “But the vote that we have on health care this week – and I’m not under the impression that the House has made up its mind on what that process is going to be, I haven’t read it – but I don’t think there’s any doubt that people — this would be a final vote on health care.  You’ll know where health care is.”