No Need To Pass Health Care Through Reconciliation

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_02/022611.php

NO NEED TO PASS HEALTH CARE THROUGH RECONCILIATION.... If I understand the Republican talking points, which many in the media have already bought into, it's that health care reform is too "big" an issue to be passed through reconciliation.

Some of the slightly-less ridiculous conservative voices will concede that Republicans used reconciliation repeatedly when they were in the majority, but, they quickly add, this is different. Health care is health care. Something so sweeping shouldn't be approved by majority rule.

Let's clear up something really important here, because the political world seems to have forgotten.

No one's talking about passing health care reform through reconciliation. There's no need to pass health care reform through reconciliation -- health care reform has already passed.

You might remember December. The Senate had a very long debate, followed by a Republican filibuster. There was a vote to end that filibuster, which was successful. And on Christmas Eve, senators registered a vote, and health care reform passed, 60 to 39.

No tricks, no reconciliation, no abuses. Just a debate, followed by an unsuccessful filibuster, followed by a vote.

The next step isn't passing health care reform through reconciliation; the next step is passing a budget fix that improves the legislation that's already passed. That, of course, is why reconciliation exists.

The entire GOP talking point is based on a fallacy. If the Democratic plan proceeds, it would not be approving health care reform through reconciliation. That would be pointless -- health care reform already passed without reconciliation.

Tell your friends.

—Steve Benen

[still_one]

1. It is long past due for the Democrats to control the talking points, not the republicans

This is the biggest problem they have

[stopbush]

2. Tweety and Chuck Todd made this same point on Hardball yesterday

after the Summit.

Some in the media have the message. Let's see if they stick with it or get blown off it by the latest RW talking point.

[Cha]

13. Thanks for that.

[gkhouston]

20. $64,000 question is why the White House seems to be overlooking this.

Or is that what the President is planning on announcing next week?

[lamp_shade]

3. Best explanation of the issue I've seen. Thanks. I sent it to all my confused friends.

[Better Today]

4. I believe he is wrong. Unless the House adopts the Senate plan, which it hasn't

then there has not been a passing of a HC(insurance)R bill. It could be done, but it hasn't been done.

However he is right in that, this is what is being proposed...pass the Senate bill then fix it in reconciliation.

[bbinacan]

5. Doesn't the House bill

have to be considered before the President can sign a final bill?

[liberalpragmatist]

6. No, both houses just have to pass the same bill

Theoretically, the Senate could just pass the House bill word-for-word. But there is no way that bill (or any comprehensive bill) can get through the Senate now that Republicans have 41 votes to block. And putting the whole thing through reconciliation may not work, because much of the bill doesn't fit under reconciliation rules.

That's why the onus is on the House to pass the Senate bill.

[bbinacan]

11. Thanks for the info.

I think HCR is DOA.

[sohndrsmith]

15. Too bad. The house bill includes the PO. Though the

wording of the Senate bill almost hints at it, I think. I'm hoping that the PO will become evident, and Obama knows that the only way we'll get it in is passing this bill first so we get the ball rolling and people see how much we need it. Or it just gets adopted gradually...

We voice shame (often, generally) that we are the only 1st World/developed nation (I can't think of the right term) that does not have a national health care system - why not look to those as something of a model? If they aren't good or don't work, then it wouldn't make sense. But if that were true we wouldn't hold these systems up to show how backwards we are... it confuses me. Many of these national health care programs in other countries have been in use for a long time... surely that could be helpful. Maybe?

No matter what, the insurance monsters have to have outside oversight, regulations and standards that THEY don't get to make up themselves. If these things don't happen, I don't think we'll get very far at all.

[ProSense]

7. This is the reason Repubs are screaming start over.

They want to obscure the fact that both chambers of Congress passed a health care bill.

[Solomon]

8. Outstanding point if I say so myself.

Really good point.

[Stuart G]

9. Agreed,,,nt

[sohndrsmith]

16. Good point. I think it's because "starting over" is the only way they

can push propoganda claiming equal credit for this historic legislation. As it is now, their cooperation is politically worthless to them, Obama will get credit and history will remember it that way.

By stopping them (thanks, GOP, by the way - for telling your constituents, taxpayers, all of us, that the money spent over this past year is something that can be discarded because it's not politically convenient. Egads.

Imagine if Obama DID scrap it, started over, and said, "Okay guys, let's see your proposals," only to have their ideas be *exactly* the same as those things in the bills now. Somehow they got through that entire summit yesterday without acknowledging even *once* that the few ideas they were spewing out were already there! Obama kept telling them, but I didn't see one of them concur. They'd just put the bills down, say "start over" and then talk about what they want (same stuff, different words)...

Looks like this will be the second day in a row that my head explodes. : )

Oh yeah, and by the way, Rs... how many people will get sick, lose insurance (homes, go bankrupt) and DIE while they take their sweet time trying to get equal billing.

Oops! There goes my hea -

[OnceRepublican]

29. Great Point! I'll bet many don't realize, as did I

[Demoiselle]

10. Couldn't we do a "budget fix"..

..which is the stated purpose of reconciliation...by adding a public option of some sort (the only thing that will really save money, and therefore make the budget for this bill work)
to the final bill?
Did that make any sense?

[HughMoran]

19. Yes, this is one of the reasons for the letter supporting the PO

Not likely to happen, but we can hope...

[annabanana]

12. I KNOW!. .It's remarkable that this little fact seems to have

slipped right by our intrepid media..

[Cha]

14. Steve Benen, I will tell my friends!

:bounce:

[applegrove]

17. Yup. They definitely rolled out McCain to create an atmosphere of

fear around the idea of reconcilliation. Creeps.

[HughMoran]

18. This is really the crux here

The Democrats have ALREADY PASSED healthcare reform in BOTH HOUSES! They simply need to come up with a deal where the House passes the Senate Bill, then reconciliation is used to implement the agreement between House and Senate. This Steve Benen is right on here - the reconciliation part is NOT healthcare reform - it's simply a budget fix to bill that have already passed. Let's not forget this.

[jenmito]

21. Exactly. I started a thread saying the same thing yesterday-how the media is

going right along with the Repub. lie that the Dems. want to pass HCR through reconciliation. The only person who pointed out the facts was Chuck Todd. That's a shame.

[onenote]

22. yes and no

HCR hasn't been enacted and reconciliation is good for amending legislation that has been enacted. If the Senate would agree to the House bill or vice versa, there would be no need for reconciliation for some form of HCR to become law. But apparently there is no way that is going to happen unless there is an understanding that the bill is going to be changed after the fact that likely requires the use of reconciliation in the Senate. So as a real practical matter, if HCR is going to be enacted into law, reconciliation is indeed necessary.

[Mike 03]

23. Excellent Post! Kick and Rec. I was wondering what those two emotional votes were all about.

They kept me up for nights, and I am glad they meant something.

This is exceptionally good news.

[Mike 03]

24. Thanks again. I was truly confused and fell hook, line and sinker for this,

although to be frank I didn't think there was anything wrong with using Reconciliation in the first place.

This is such important news, I would love to see it posted in GD too!

THANKS AGAIN!!!!!!!

[Faryn Balyncd]

25. Fortunately, the current (bad) bill is not law. We need to use reconciliation to pass a GOOD bill...

....that voters need and support, not pass into law a bad, no-public-option, no Medicare Buy-In, lobbyist written mandate that will keep them enslaved to the Insurance Cartel decades after they have voted our majority back into permanent minority.

Howard Dean nailed it.

We need to restore the Medicare Buy In through reconciliation.

The GOP has used reconciliation for all kinds of things.

If you want to subscribe to the theory that reconciliation can only be used for budgetary goals, then require that Medicare be amended so that any American can buy in to Medicare at a rate 10% above the budget neutral rate, so as to ensure a profit to Medicare to be used to offset forecasted deficits.

If you don't like that approach, then let the Senate change their damn arbitrary rules back to what they were a few years ago, and if the GOP wants to filibuster, make them filibuster until they tire of changing out their urine bags while reading the phone book into the Congressional record with the CSPAN cameras rolling. Let the public see them for the bufoons they are, in living color.



:hi:


:kick:





"If Barack Obama’s bill gets changed to exclude the public entities, it is not health insurance reform…it rises and falls on whether the public is allowed to choose Medicare if they’re under 65 or not. If they are allowed to choose Medicare as an option, this bill will be real health care reform...."

- Howard Dean

[Mike 03]

26. I would LOVE the Medicare BUY-IN, and also like the Public Option.

My father has Medicare and he is getting first rate cancer treatment at the Mayo Clinic.

I would buy into Medicare in two seconds after seeing how much it has helped my dad. They gave him six months to live and he going on three years now.

[Mike 03]

27. Babylonsister, could I please have your permission to post a link to your post here

in GD, because I know so many people who are so confused about this issue, and your post is so relevant to understanding this situation.

I would just say, "Go here" and credit you with the post.

This is crucial, because unlike some others, I think "reconciliation" is very difficult to understand.

Thank you SO MUCH for this post. It has answered many, many questions I could not find answers to.

[babylonsister]

28. Copy the whole thing and put it in GD; it's good info everyone should

be aware of.

[mstinamotorcity]

30. Now the only thing

We need to do is have your reps pass the senate bill and do the fixes in budget reconciliation which we then push for the public option or medicare for all.This is where we must get busy.This is how we get health care reform we continue to fight for it. We have two bills that has already passed but the senate won't vote on the house bill and pass it.So we take the senate bill pass it and make it better through reconciliation. And our President is smart and he knows a way for us to get the perk that the American people and the economy need. And by George I think he's got this one.And when it passes we have to add this to the promises kept column.

[Zoeisright]

31. Gee, repukes are LYING??

WHAT a shock.

[Mike 03]

32. Friendly Kick. This is an extremely important post. NT