Reconciliation

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What is the "budget reconciliation" procedure that Democrats have discussed using in the U.S. Senate to approve health care reform legislation if they can't attract Republican support?

Because individual senators can use a filibuster to block votes on issues they oppose, controversial legislation often requires support from 60 senators to override a filibuster rather than a 51-vote majority.

Bills considered under "budget reconciliation," a process created in 1974 to fast-track deficit-reduction efforts, can't be filibustered. They require a simple 51-vote majority for passage, and a maximum of 20 hours of debate is allowed.

Over the years, congressional leaders from both parties have used the parliamentary tactic to pass broader initiatives with tangential budget impact. Writing in the New Republic, congressional scholars Thomas Mann, Norman Ornstein and Molly Reynolds listed prior measures that both parties enacted through reconciliation. They include health insurance portability (COBRA), nursing home standards, expanded Medicaid eligibility, increases in the earned income tax credit, welfare reform, the state Children's Health Insurance Program, President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, and student aid reform.

Republicans - who hold 40 Senate seats - are anything but reconciled to the idea of passing health care reform through reconciliation, although they didn't balk at using the tactic to approve oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the days when they controlled the Senate.

"I think that would wreck our health care system and wreck the Democratic Party if they did that," Tennessee GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander said in a conference call with reporters this month. "If the people who are deeply concerned about this today thought that one party would ram through a proposal which is almost certain to increase the debt, limit coverage, raise costs, cause people to lose their employer-based insurance, there would be a minor revolution in this country."

Democrats hold 57 seats in the Senate and can usually count on votes from independents Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to pad their majority. A Massachusetts seat is vacant because of the death of Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Still, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has repeatedly said that he wants to find a bipartisan compromise with Republicans and that he won't use reconciliation "unless we have no alternative."

If Democrats resort to reconciliation to pass health-care reform, they probably will have to scale back some of their legislative ambitions. Reconciliation can be used only for measures that directly affect government spending, revenue and taxes. Some health-care reform proposals obviously qualify, like expanding Medicaid or providing government subsidies for low-income individuals to buy health insurance. Other measures, like creating a public insurance option or establishing exchanges where individuals could buy health insurance, would be harder to justify as budget-related.

It's ultimately up to the Senate parliamentarian to decide whether a provision is eligible for consideration through reconciliation. The current parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, was appointed to the job in 2001 by former Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, a Republican. He's worked in the parliamentarian's office since 1977.

The job is supposed to be nonpartisan, although Lott fired Frumin's predecessor, Robert Dove, because he disagreed with his rulings.

- Sabrina Eaton, Plain Dealer Washington Bureau

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1253436068113040.xml&coll=2
 
If the tables were turned and republicans had the control democrats have they would enact whatever they wanted without any consideration of democrats .. knowing they could frighten many of them into compliance with WHATEVER they wanted.

Watching democrats continue to play these bullshit games is quite disgusting.
 
Congressional leaders from both parties have used the parliamentary tactic to pass broader initiatives with tangential budget impact.

Writing in the New Republic, congressional scholars Thomas Mann, Norman Ornstein and Molly Reynolds listed prior measures that both parties enacted through reconciliation.

They include health insurance portability (COBRA), nursing home standards, expanded Medicaid eligibility, increases in the earned income tax credit, welfare reform, the state Children's Health Insurance Program, President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, and student aid reform.

Republicans didn't balk at using the tactic to approve oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the days when they controlled the Senate.
 
Congressional leaders from both parties have used the parliamentary tactic to pass broader initiatives with tangential budget impact.

Writing in the New Republic, congressional scholars Thomas Mann, Norman Ornstein and Molly Reynolds listed prior measures that both parties enacted through reconciliation.

They include health insurance portability (COBRA), nursing home standards, expanded Medicaid eligibility, increases in the earned income tax credit, welfare reform, the state Children's Health Insurance Program, President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, and student aid reform.

Republicans didn't balk at using the tactic to approve oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the days when they controlled the Senate.

That's my point brother.

Republicans will use whatever they need to get what they want .. including fear and intimidation. Only democrats believe they have to play by Marques of Queensbury rules to get things done.

They have the presidency and a supermajority .. yet all they've been able to get done is bailouts and a weak ass stimulus.

Continued "efforts" at bi-partisanship when clearly republicans don't want to play, is a clear demonstration of weakness .. and a hidden agenda. They aren't getting it done because they don't want to get it done.

"Bi-partisnaship" provides them cover.
 
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