As most of us thought, Obama is a center, center right president

[eomer]

165. No, an omnibus bill is just a variation of reconciliation that is broader in span, but there was

nothing stopping Congressional Democrats from using a broader bill that would have been considered omnibus. The reconciliation rules are the same either way: either omnibus or not you still do not need 60 votes in the Senate at any step.

You are right that they couldn't just tack on tax changes at the last minute but I never suggested that they should do it that way. What they should have done is begin planning a broad bill (omnibus, if you like) as soon as it was clear in late 2008 that they would hold both houses and the Presidency for two years. They would of course have to follow all the steps in the process but, doing that, there was no way that Republicans could stop them.

There are numerous examples of reconciliation bills that combined many diverse subject areas, including tax changes. There was no reason that Congressional Democrats could not accomplish what's been done many times over. They merely chose not to.