Democrats will Sell Themselves Out with Reconciliation
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at 3:09PM President Obama made a "final" push for health care reform today flanked by doctors in lab coats. (Where have we seen Obama use lab coats before?) Despite the looming threat of reconciliation, the President was careful to avoid using the word during his speech. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are pushing ahead with the tactic which originally applied only to taxation and spending bills as explained by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Just as a reminder, let's see how the Democrats themselves felt about reconciliation during a Republican presidency:
So what would happen if the Democrats who formerly denounced the use of reconciliation then ran into themselves now?
The Democrats' statements of the past and their disregard for public sentiment will catch up with them. Obviously our politicians aren't going to physically disintegrate into piles of goo like fictional Senator Aaron McComb in Timecop but the November elections are fast approaching. If the Democrats use reconciliation in spite of their past comments they will find themselves owning the Health Care bill alone and the Republicans will have a lot of material to campaign on.
For an in depth look at the reconciliation "nobody" is talking about see Michelle Malkin's excellent post.
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Reader Comments (3)
Ben, you seem to be suggesting that the entirety of the health care bill will be passed by reconciliation. You know as well as I do that that is not correct: both the House and Senate passed bills already. Reconciliation would be used to, get ready for it, reconcile the budgetary differences between the House and Senate bills, and strip out the stupid handouts to Nelson and Lincoln.
That doesn't diminish the hypocrisy of either the Dems or the Repubs for their fake outrage over its use. But the
liesdisinformation being spread by the Repubs right now is simply wrong. Furthermore, it seems that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, passed by reconciliation, has cost more than either health care bill is projected to, invalidating their common claim that nothing this big or ambitious has passed by reconciliation.Little-known fact: COBRA insurance stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act.
C'mon Mark. The changes that would need to be made far exceed any definition of "budgetary." Just ask Bart Stupak.
And Senator Reid disagrees with Stupak. Politicians have, at best, a nebulous grasp of the truth when it suits their agenda. I usually ignore them unless I can find support from apolitical experts. Thomas Mann, Senior Fellow at Brookings, thinks it's absolutely appropriate. Do you have such a reference to support your opinion?
BTW, Mann's comment about the strong similarities between the current Democratic bills and the Republican alternate to the Clinton bill was news to me. I guess it's okay for Republicans to vote for it before they vote against it?