UPDATE: Obama to Say Democrats Will Use Reconciliation to Pass Senate Health Care Reform Fix...

[jefferson_dem]

:applause:

President Obama to Say Democrats Will Use Reconciliation to Pass Senate Health Care Reform Fix, If Not Given Up or Down Vote
March 02, 2010 6:27 PM

White House officials tell ABC News that in his remarks tomorrow President Obama will indicate a willingness to work with Republicans on some issue to get a health care reform bill passed but will say that if it is necessary, Democrats will use the controversial reconciliation rules requiring only 51 Senate votes to pass the "fix" to the Senate bill.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been awaiting the president’s remarks direction on how health care reform will proceed.

In his remarks, scheduled to be at the White House, the president will paint a picture of what he will say will happen without a health care reform bill – skyrocketing premiums, everyone at the mercy of the insurance industry as recently seen with the 39% premium increases proposed by Anthem Blue Cross in California.

He will note that the “fixed” bill will include the proposal for a new "Health Insurance Rate Authority" to set guidelines for reasonable rate increases. If proposed premium increases are not justifiable per those Health Insurance Rate Authority guidelines, the Health and Human Services Secretary or state regulators could block them.

The president will outline the plan to pass the bill, including having the House of Representatives pass the Democratic Senate health care reform legislation as well as a second bill containing various “fixes.”

He will say that if Republicans refuse to allow and up or down vote in the Senate on the fixes to the bill, Democrats will use the reconciliation rules

<SNIP>

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/03/obama-democrats-will-use-reconciliation-to-pass-senate-health-care-bill.html

[Beetwasher]

1. It's Only Contrversial When Dems Use Recon

Douchebag media.

[depakid]

5. It's not the media's fault- Democrats made it "controversial" all by own timid selves

[Beetwasher]

6. Bullshit

While they share some blame for their poor messaging it doesn't absolve the preponderance of piss poor reporting in the Corp media.

[PassingFair]

10. There were plenty of Democrats POSTING HERE....

that claimed that reconciliation was NOT an option.

Now they are backing up and hoping that no one
notices that they said reconciliation was impossible
when the public option was viable and now they will
do it without it to please the insurance companies
and the hospitals.

[Beetwasher]

13. Uh What?

What does your non-sequitor have to do with my comment about piss poor reporting?

[depakid]

18. If the Dems had simply gone and done it- as we knew they'd have to

and as Republicans have when issues like this came up- we (and the media) wouldn't have been sitting around all this time and dragging out the controversy.

It would have been over and done- and we'd have long since have been onto jobs legislation and financial reform.

Probably still had a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts, too.

[Beetwasher]

20. Blah Blah Still Doesn't Absolve The Piss Poor Media

[depakid]

22. Not trying to absolve them- just pointing out that it's largely a problem of the Dems own making

All this hemming and hawing for months on end- publicly coddling the likes of Lieberman, Nelson and Blanche Lincoln -all of it was unnecessary and drew much more attention to reconciliation (and the sorry process as a whole) than was required.

For the most part- for all that time, it's been our side that's been talking about it- everyone from media opinion leaders like Ed Schultz, to strategists like Howard Dean and dozens of Democratic politicians in office.

[Beetwasher]

25. You're Arguing Against Yourself

Since I specifically said they do share some of the blame. You just won't admit it's not all their fault, and that's your problem.

[Doremus]

26. +1

[Vincardog]

2. Why not use Recon to pass the HOUSE bill?

[MrSlayer]

3. Because it didn't pass the Senate.

I don't think it works that way.

[damonm]

4. Unfortunately, you're correct. n/t

[Vincardog]

7. Hence the term Reconciliation. Reconcile the two different bills. The Senate bill did not pass the

House either.

[MrSlayer]

12. No it didn't. But it has to in order to go to reconciliation.

If I understand the process correctly. House, Senate, House again and then to reconciliation. And then only certain things can be changed.

[Vincardog]

27. Do you understand anything that says the the Senate version has to be the one approved?

[MrSlayer]

28. Yes. I do.

The Senate bill has to pass the House before reconciliation can go forward. Unless that was not what you were asking.

[backscatter712]

9. Exactly.

You can't pass an entire health care bill with reconciliation - you'd hit Byrd Rule clusterfuckery.

You've got to start with the Senate bill. That's already passed the Senate, so all we have to do is get the House to vote for it, and the way to do that is with the reconciliation sidecar bill to fix the brain damage in the Senate bill. That way, you're only passing fixes, not the entire bill through reconciliation, most of the fixes are Byrd-Rule-compliant, so the parliamentarian shouldn't have too many objections.

And since the public option can be passed with reconciliation, it can be attached to the sidecar, if we can get 51 senators to vote for it. So far, we've got 34 (as of http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/02/ted-kaufman-public-option_n_483145.html - Ted Kaufman just issued a statement in support! :woohoo: )

Granted, the odds are still against the public option, but even without it, the reconciliation bill's worthwhile to deal with some of the other Senate Bill brain damage.

[gateley]

15. I thought it did pass the Senate -- didn't SOMETHING pass in the Senate? I can't

keep up with it. Could it BE any more confusing?? :eyes:

[MrSlayer]

16. The Senate bill passed the Senate.

The House bill did not.

[gateley]

17. Well, put that way, I get it -- thanks! But still, the whole scenario is mind

boggling to me.

[MrSlayer]

21. Maybe this will help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ&feature=related

:D

[gateley]

23. Thank you so much

[gateley]

8. Whoa -- this is the most definitive statement yet, isn't it? nt

[gkhouston]

11. If it gets broadcasted instead of being made under a Cone of Silence.

You know what our "fair and balanced" media is like. :grr:

[gateley]

14. Good point -- and it says "in his remarks tomorrow" which doesn't make it

sound like a News Alert by any means. We'll just have to use our shoe phones and spread the word! :7

[Arkana]

19. GOOD.

NOW DO IT.

DO IT NOW.

GET TO DA CHOPPA and all that.

[falcon97]

24. "the controversial reconciliation rules"

Nice reporting, ABC. :mad: