The Homa Files

Candidate Obama pledged not to use reconciliation for healthcare legislation when he was stumping.  So much for campaign promises.

There’s a greater risk to the Dems if they use the process to pass ObamaCare: if the GOP retakes a majority of the Senate, it can use the same process to repeal the legislation.  After all, an unequivocal precedent will have been set.  Oops.

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Excerpted from WSJ: The Trouble With ‘Reconciliation’, March 11, 2010

Fear not, sayeth Speaker Pelosi, all will be fixed with the magic dust known as “reconciliation” —a  process that allows budget and spending bills to move through the Senate with 51 votes instead of 60.

But, if Democrats use reconciliation to enact health-care reform, this fight isn’t likely to end this year.

Democrats are resorting to reconciliation because that would allow them to avoid a Republican filibuster.

That leaves Republicans free to use the same process to repeal ObamaCare that Democrats are using to enact it.

It means that for the next several election cycles every GOP Senate candidate can campaign on the promise to be that 51st vote for repeal.

House Democrats would be foolish to trust a process that has deeply alienated the American public. There are lots of reasons for Democrats to worry that voters will punish them for passing this reform.

Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703701004575113831577327418.html

This entry was posted on March 11, 2010 at 7:59 am and is filed under Health Care / Medical Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.