Sunday - January 17, 2010

Dirty Pool

Even if Democrats lose the Jan. 19 special election to pick a new Massachusetts senator, Congress may still pass a health-care overhaul by using a process called reconciliation, a top House Democrat said.

That procedure requires 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to prevent Republicans from blocking votes on President Barack Obama’s top legislative priorities. That supermajority is at risk as the Massachusetts race has tightened.

“Even before Massachusetts and that race was on the radar screen, we prepared for the process of using reconciliation,” said Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“Getting health-care reform passed is important,” Van Hollen said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. “Reconciliation is an option.”

Using reconciliation would likely force Democrats to scale back their health-care plans. The procedure is designed to make deficit-cutting easier by reducing the number of votes needed to pass unpopular tax increases and spending cuts. Lawmakers can’t include policy changes that the parliamentarian deems have only an “incidental” connection to budget-cutting, and senators would need 60 votes to override those rulings.

According to Wikipedia, reconciliation has been around since 1973. What is it?

Reconciliation is a legislative process of the United States Senate intended to allow a contentious budget bill to be considered without being subject to filibuster. Because reconciliation limits debate and amendment, the process empowers the majority party.

Now, isn’t this the interesting bit ...

Congress used reconciliation to enact President Bill Clinton’s 1993 (fiscal year 1994) budget.  Clinton wanted to use reconciliation to pass his 1993 health care plan, but Senator Robert Byrd (D-WVa) insisted that the health care plan was out of bounds for a process that is theoretically about budgets. However, on August 25, 2009, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), one of the members of the Senate Finance Committee’s “Gang of Six” bipartisan group to work on a health insurance reform bill in the Senate, said that reconciliation is an acceptable option, and that he can support it.

Until 1996, reconciliation was limited to deficit reduction, but in 1996 the Senate’s Republican majority adopted a precedent to apply reconciliation to any legislation affecting the budget, even legislation that would increase the deficit.

The resolution process was used to get GW Bush’s tax cut plan passed.

Oh, and who is this Gang Of Six again?

And just who or what is this “parliamentarian”? It turns out to be one guy. ONE GUY. Named Alan Frumin, an unelected person who has had the job since 2001, and if he ALONE decides that the policy changes in the bill are NOT “incidental” then they can all be included. Or he can cut the massive bill to shreds and just let through the pieces that he wants. ONE GUY to decide the future of 1/6 of the American economy for the foreseeable future. How’s that for absolute power?


All of this isn’t really news. It’s been out there, flying under the radar, since August or even earlier. It’s just another bit of crap brought up at the last second just to keep the masses wound up. But it sure shows the snake-breaking corkscrew processes that go on in DC that few of us know about or pay attention to. And that crap is just too damn slick in my opinion.

So, come the revolution, here’s one more item for the laundry list of things that need a-fixin’. Pick a number, any number, to be the required percentage of the Senate vote for a bill to pass. 51%, 60%, or better yet 67%. And every single bill brought to vote - after having proved it’s constitutionality of course, will be held to that standard. Every. Single. Bill. No bill will be allowed to be retracted once it comes up for a vote, and if it doesn’t achieve the necessary votes, it can not be brought up for another vote for 18 months. No reconciliation nonsense, and no extraordinary power vested in one unelected “parliamentarian” position. Period. Cut the shenanigans. No moving the goalposts, no changing the playing field at the last minute. No almost holy secret decision maker in the back room somewhere. One set of rules for everything, out in the open, no exceptions. I’m sick of the little bullshit games from both sides of the aisle.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/17/2010 at 01:48 PM   
Filed Under: • Politics •  
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