Reconciliation Watch: GOP Getting Worried

[chill_wind]

Heh heh..

Reconciliation Watch: GOP Getting Worried
By Jefferson Morley 4/1/09 3:08 PM

All 41 Republican senators have signed an open letter asking Democratic leadership not to use the filibuster-proof reconciliation process to pass health care reform, a sure sign that the threat of reconciliation, which would allow the Senate to pass a health care reform bill with 51 votes instead of 60–issued again yesterday by Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius—is working for the Democrats.

The Weekly Standard (PDF) has the letter, which includes the usual minority party talking points: Reconciliation “would be a tremendous disservice to the country” that would “restrict the ability of Senators to amend and perfect” a health care plan, and so on.

The reality is that faced with possible exclusion from health care negotiations, GOPers have to at least pretend to be open to compromise. The threat imposes a choice: If Republicans don’t want a simple majority vote, then two more Republicans have to show they are serious about “amending and perfecting” health care by making real concessions and signing on to an Obama plan. Then the threat goes away—and the country gets health care reform. If all the Republicans choose the partisan route (as they did on the stimulus bill) then guess what? They’ll get the dreaded partisanship of a simple majority vote on health care—and the country gets health care reform.

Either way, Obama wins. Which is why Republicans are objecting more and more.

http://washingtonindependent.com/36719/reconciliation-watch-gop-getting-worried

Yesterday

Sebelius: Budget reconciliation on the table
By Jeffrey Young
Posted: 03/31/09 11:43 AM

President Obama's nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) reaffirmed Tuesday that the administration is leaving the door open to using a controversial partisan procedural tactic to pass health reform.

At a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing on her nomination to HHS, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) asserted that although Obama would prefer that health reform be bipartisan, he is not ready to tie his own hands.


"There is an interest in not taking any tools off the table," Sebelius said in response to a request by committee ranking member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) that she reject reconciliation.

Enzi replied that if Democrats use reconciliation, which would enable them to pass a healthcare bill with just 51 votes rather than the 60 normally required in the Senate, it would be the equivalent of a "declaration of war" on the minority.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/sebelius-budget-reconciliation-on-the-table-2009-03-31.html

[malaise]

1. Do as I say not as I do

Ah fuck all Rushicans.

[chill_wind]

5. I LOVE the smell of GOP Worry in the morning

:-)

[benld74]

8. Well that thought grossed me out for the rest of the week!

[chill_wind]

11. LOL... now that you say that...

[gratuitous]

2. And as ye sow, so shall ye reap

It would be a crime against nature not to pay the Republicans in their own coin the full measure of all that they've earned.

[msongs]

3. insurance companies are not worried, they will get what they want nt

[monmouth]

4. A "declaration of war" on the minority??? Wow, I recall when the

Dems were in the minority such worries didn't even come under the repukes radar. They're delusional.

[northernlights]

6. karma kickback

bites, doesn't it, NOPers? :rofl:

[tularetom]

7. For a group that did everything they could to avoid military service

them asshats sure love the "war" metaphors.

[ohheckyeah]

9. The Republicans

destroyed the economy, screwed the environment and started an unnecessary war. Why would anyone care what they think?

[lamp_shade]

10. Can't hurt to "ask". Ha.

[chill_wind]

12. :-) I liked that too .

....an open letter asking Democratic leadership..