There seems to be a growing number of Democrats who are willing to use reconciliation to pass meaningful healthcare reform.
Reconciliation is a legislative process that will pass a budget bill without being subject to a filibuster. The reconciliation process is confusing but, given what I’ve read from various sources, it is possible to use it on several key provisions. It also means that we do not have to count on conservative Democrats or Joe Lieberman. I would like to think that the Democratic caucus would follow Sen. Sanders’ call for unity against a filibuster but given some of the rhetoric I am not sure that’s likely.
I think we’ve all been frustrated with the “bipartisan” nature of the healthcare reform debate. Sen. Grassley has been particularly nerve wracking with his “death panels” nonsense, his call for 80 votes to pass healthcare reform, and just for being a general pain in the ass.
We’ve also been frustrated with the Blue Dogs and conservative Democrats in the Senate. Mike Ross of AR boasted about holding healthcare hostage for ten days. Yay, Mike! Let more folks go into bankruptcy!
But it appears that some Democrats are getting fed up. Maybe even the president.
Last week Tom Daschle (I know, I know) met with the president and has this to say afterwards:
…former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle said Obama is losing patience with negotiations between three Democrats and three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, the only congressional panel seeking a bipartisan consensus on a plan to remake the nation’s health- care system.
Chuck Schumer has begun to lay the groundwork for reconciliation:
Senator Chuck Schumer is privately urging fellow Dem Senators to aggressively argue in the media that the GOP is wholly committed to blocking reform, in order to lay the political groundwork should Dems have to do reform alone, senior Senate aides confirm to me.
Schumer’s private strategizing with fellow Democrats signals that the Dem Senate leadership is getting more serious about using the “reconciliation” process to get health care reform done without Republicans.
Not to be outdone by the fellas, Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowski weighed in:
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said yesterday what seems to be on a lot of Democratic minds. “I think that at some point everyone’s going to see that the Republicans simply are not going to agree to any kind of health-care reform that the insurance industry isn’t supporting and that, reluctantly, we’re going to have to do it without them,” she told The Hill.
Schakowsky’s words are interesting for a couple reasons. She’s the Democrats’ chief deputy whip and the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s healthcare task force. But she’s also a confidant of President Obama.
Even Harry Reid (yes, really!) gets into the act via his spokesman:
The White House still prefers a bipartisan bill, and neither the White House nor the Democratic leadership has made a decision to pursue reconciliation…We will not make a decision to pursue reconciliation until we have exhausted efforts to produce a bipartisan bill. However, patience is not unlimited and we are determined to get something done this year by any legislative means necessary.
The latest voice comes from one of the Senate Finance Committee’s “gang of six.” While it is committee chairman Max Baucus who gets most of the attention, Jeff Bingaman of NM is trying to “work” with his Republican colleagues to get a bill out of the committee. He doesn’t seen too optimistic, though.
“We made a provision in the budget resolution [earlier this year] that it could be used to try to enact health care provisions related to health care reform,” Bingaman said. “There are restrictions to what you can include in that…but I would support it if that’s the only way.”
Reconciliation has its problems. I won’t claim to be an expert on this complicated procedure but here’s what I can tell. Given that multiple bills will need to be “reconciled” the Senate Budget Committee chairman would oversee the process. Who, you might ask, is the Senate Budget Committee chairman? Kent Conrad of North Dakota. He is the same dude pushing the co-op idea and is not high on the public option notion. Additionally, Republicans, despite using reconciliation to push through the Bush tax cuts, are already screeching that healthcare is too big to push through without bipartisan support. Joe Lieberman (ugh) really needs to be either kicked out of the caucus and/or stripped of his committee chairmanship.
In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union”, Lieberman said; “I’m afraid we’ve got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy’s out of recession…there’s no reason we have to do it all now, but we do have to get started. And I think the place to start is cost health delivery reform and insurance market reforms”.
snip
Lieberman continued by saying “I think it’s a real mistake to try to jam through the total health insurance reform, a health care reform plan that the public is either opposed to or of very, very passionate mixed minds about”.
With folks like Lieberman in the Democratics caucus there are serious concerns about invoking cloture, particularly given the serious questions about Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Byrd being healthy enough to vote. I would think that Sen. Kennedy would roll in on a gurney if necessary. Sen. Byrd showed up to vote for now-Justice Sotomayor so he may be healthy enough to vote on healthcare reform as well. I would be remiss, while mentioning Sen. Byrd, if I didn’t point out that it was the senior senator from WV who quashed the notion of using reconciliation to pass Bill Clinton’s healthcare reform, largely because provisions did not have to do with the budget. The same issues are in play here but the public option, arguably the most contentious and real portion of the reform effort, does affect the budget and would fit under the reconciliation procedure. I’m also not sure, given his health, how much effort the senator would place on following the Byrd Rule this time.
The fall is shaping up to be a doozy. I wish I had a crystal ball to tell me how this was going to end up if only to prevent an ulcer. I just hope the president comes back from vacation rested and raring to go, and that the Democratic Congressional leadership is willing to FINALLY do the right thing and pass effective, efficient healthcare reform.
UPDATES:
Mike Enzi chimes in:
Mike Enzi, one of three Republicans ostensibly negotiating health care reform as part of the Senate’s “Gang of Six,” told a Wyoming town hall crowd that he had no plans to compromise with Democrats and was merely trying to extract concessions.
“It’s not where I get them to compromise, it’s what I get them to leave out,” Enzi said Monday, according to the Billings Gazette.
Enzi found himself under attack at the town hall simply for sitting in the same room as the three Finance Committee Democrats. Republicans in the crowd called for him to exit the talks. He assured conservatives that his presence was delaying health care reform.
“If I hadn’t been involved in this process as long as I have and to the depth as I have, you would already have national health care,” he said.
Robert Byrd has asked that the healthcare reform be named after Sen. Kennedy.
In his honor and as a tribute to his commitment to his ideals, let us stop the shouting and name calling and have a civilized debate on health care reform which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American.
6 comments