I’m formally proposing that henceforth, a class picture of the 111^th Congress be displayed as part of the references for “chicanery” in all dictionaries and encyclopedias. They are indeed, the very illustration of the word.

Even though most democrats are doing their best to ignore the congressional skullduggery currently underway, we have an opportunity to educate them on a descriptive noun that accurately describes what Speaker Pelosi, Senate Leader Reid and the democrat majorities are doing.

One simple word can paint the mental picture that truly describes the activities of this Congress. And that word is … chicanery … here is a definition:

chi·can·er·y

–noun, plural-er·ies.

1. Trickery or deception used to trick, deceive, or evade

Some synonyms: cheating, deviousness, dishonesty, double-crossing, double-dealing, fraud, hanky-panky, plot, ploy, ruse, skullduggery, subterfuge, surreptitiousness, underhandedness.

It was bad enough when they played dishonest games with the original healthcare bill by specifying that ten years of revenue would be included, but only six years of expenses. This was done to artificially reduce the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) estimate of the bill’s cost over the required ten year projection. They said that the House bill (based on the input given the CBO) would increase the deficit by $239 billion over 10 years. But what would that number be if there were an additional four years of expenses added in? How much more would the deficit be increased with four more years of expenses? Even a farm animal could reason that if the forecast was based on the same period for revenue and expenses, the cost would be substantially higher. Ten years of revenue and only six years of expenses does not yield a true 10-year cost of the legislation. That is dishonest and is meant to deceive us, the taxpayers – and that is - congressional chicanery.

Then, in order to stop a scheduled 21% reduction in Medicare payments to doctors, they moved the legislation designed to “fix” the doctor’s reduction (by rescinding it, it’s called the “doctor fix”) to an entirely separate, unrelated bill. This was done to keep the $210 billion dollar fix out of the healthcare bill because it would have added another $210 billion to the cost of the bill. The “Doctor Fix” was moved to what is referred to as the “Jobs Bill” to keep the cost of the healthcare insurance reform bill under that “magic” $1 trillion figure. That is slight-of-hand and fraud, and even more congressional chicanery.

Those are only two egregious examples, there are countless more.

So, we’re not being told the truth about the real cost of the proposed healthcare overhaul and Congress is intentionally lying to us, they know that they must, else we’d never allow the legislation to pass.

The legislation is bad enough. But an even more troublesome activity is the methodology that they’re using to force the bill into law. There will be no single bill, negotiated by conference committee, on which to vote as is usually the case. There will be no “up or down” vote as we, the taxpayers, might expect. Indeed, there may not even be a vote on a “final” bill at all. Instead, Speaker Pelosi and her thugs are proposing that they just “deem” the bill to have been passed because the House passed a bill (bill “A”) and the Senate passed a different bill (bill “B”) – they say that each body did indeed pass a bill.

This action would (supposedly) allow Obama to sign the bill into law although legislators are not on record as having voted for it (they voted for that “other” bill). This way they could deny having voted for this travesty. Yet another case of deviousness, dishonesty, and double-crossing of we the people.

They are scrambling now, beating the bushes to find any way to get the bill passed – regardless of the method. Apparently, they will do anything to pass healthcare now.

This Congress is spitting in the face of we the people. They are acting in their own interest – not ours. They are pulling every dirty, underhanded trick to “fool” us into believing that our healthcare will be improved, it will cost individuals less, it will not increase the deficit, and everyone will happy that they forced it down our throats.

In any other endeavor, their actions would be deemed (there’s that word again) fraudulent and subject to prosecution – but no … “they’re just our ‘public servants,’ doing their duty.”

That’s a load of B.S.

They cannot be allowed to pursue these devious, dishonest, double-crossing, double-dealing, fraudulent activities without consequences.

We all aspire to leave our children and grandchildren a better life. We want them to be happy and safe, emotionally and economically sound, and free to follow their dreams, whatever they may be.

If we allow this congressional chicanery to continue – to go unpunished, we will have failed all of those who follow us and they will reap the whirlwind.