‘Reconciliation’ would violate the democratic process
From Monday’s editorial in the North Bay Business Journal:
It is said that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over expecting a different result.
And that, too, is the definition of the health care bill Congress is threatening to ram through with the highly partisan votes of 50 senators plus the vice president.
After more than 50 presidential speeches on the subject and a year of debate and backroom deals, public opinion has not budged. A majority of Americans are opposed, and the percentage in favor of the health care proposals before Congress hovers in the high thirties or low forties.
Why? Well, start with the budgetary gimmicks to make it look like the bill won’t further blow out the deficit, such as 10 years of higher taxes and Medicare cuts to pay for six years of expanded coverage.
Then again, people instinctively reject the notion of spending $1 trillion (some say it is closer to $2.3 trillion) to somehow reduce the deficit many years from now. And then there’s the proposal to take $500 million from nearly insolvent Medicare purportedly to pay for a new program.
Never mind that raising taxes by $500 billion during an epic recession could have serious unintended consequences.
The parliamentary tactic Democrats favor to ram through this legislation is for the House to approve the Senate version of the bill. To do so, House members would have to trust the upper chamber to strip the legislation of its most onerous elements, such as the two bribes known as the Cornhusker Kickback and Louisiana Purchase the Senate needed to get enough votes to pass the bill in the first place last Christmas Eve.
Then, under the “reconciliation” process, usually reserved for budget decisions, the Senate could pass the bill affecting one-sixth of the U.S. economy with 50 votes plus the vice president.
The Senate’s tradition of 60 votes and bipartisanship needed to pass major social legislation would be trashed. Yes, “reconciliation” has been used before on major bills, including by Republicans, but usually with large bipartisan majorities.
Most of the punditry surrounding the potential fallout of passing unpopular health care legislation by a vote of 50 Senators and the vice president has focused on the backlash Democrats could face in the November elections.
But that misses the point.
Shoving through such a mammoth and expensive piece of legislation with 51 partisan votes and in violation of the spirit of the Senate is an abuse of power.
It would diminish the world’s greatest democracy, perhaps irreversibly.
I find it very strange that you just repeat the Republican talking points and (like they) don’t care about the facts. The majority of Americans are NOT opposed to the bill. If you look behind the numbers, 20% of Americans who don’t like the bill say it is because it doesn’t go far enough! If you add the people who like the bill and those who want it more liberial, you have over 50%. There may be higher taxes, but the people they effect can afford it after getting all the tax breaks from “W”. It was the CBO that said the bill would save us $ over the long run. Your claim that Republicans had large bipartisan votes when they did reconciliation is a general term that does not fit the facts. In the tax relief act of 2003 the Republicans got 7 Democratic votes in the House and 2 in the Senate. In fact the Senate was evenly divided and Cheney had to break the tie. And where are the Republic answers to our health problems? Over 40,000 people die every year because they don’t have any health care insurance, but I guess that is OK with you! The health industy has spent over a $1 million a day on lobbist to convince the Republic Congress members to vote there way. Republican members who think it is OK for them to have a government sponsored health care plan, but not for the average American! Their Hypocrisy is something to behold!
by Bill Borjan