Dean favors scaled-back healthcare reform

[janx]

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean on Friday threw his support behind passing a series of scaled-back healthcare measures instead of one comprehensive bill.

Dean embraced the approach now favored by some House Democrats in an appearance on CBS' "Early Show" Friday morning.

"We can't get the whole thing but I think we can get some good stuff done before the election," he said. "I would go back and do that though and run it through the reconciliation program."

Democrats in Congress have been scrambling to find a new way to pass healthcare reform legislation because Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R-Mass.) will break the Democrats' filibuster-proof majority in the Senate once he is sworn in.

More at link:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/77503-dean-favors-scaled-back-healthcare-reform

[Jackpine Radical]

1. WHAT fucken filibuster-proof majority?

[backscatter712]

4. That's why they're talking reconciliation.

Either they're going to pass the Senate Bill straight, then pass the House-Senate-negotiated changes with a reconciliation bill, or they're going to reboot, rewrite the bill so it's Byrd Rule compliant, and pass that. With option number one, passing the Senate bill straight sends it directly to Obama's desk, then the reconciliation changes can go through the Senate with 51 votes, or the rebooted bill can also pass both the House and Senate with a simple majority.

Assuming there's enough will to go around to do it at all...

Oops, forgot option 3 (the Grivalja option) - break the bill into pieces, the popular parts pass with 60 votes in the Senate, the controversial, but Byrd-compliant parts pass with reconciliation with 51 votes.

I'll still express a small amount of optimism, if only because the Democrats have got to know that they have to pass something in order to have a fighting chance at survival this November - the Choakley fiasco showed them in no uncertain terms that they are vulnerable, and passing no health care bill at all will guarantee they'll get slaughtered.

[janx]

5. That's essentially what Dean said.

It's not ideal, but I hope he's right--he usually is. ;-)

[pinto]

2. That's probably the likely approach at this point in time. Fiscal aspects via reconciliation and

purely legislative aspects as stand alone legislation(s).

[janx]

3. I heard Dean talk about this on Thursday.

The end of this article is especially important:

But the former Vermont governor remained optimistic that Congress would pass a measure using the approach and blamed Republicans for the predicament in which Democrats now find themselves.

"The Republicans are using this as a tactic to kill healthcare and embarrass the president," Dean said. "That's not the right thing to do for America."


And yeah, I think you're right. :hi: