Nuclear Option

[rick]

The White House is threatening the nuclear option to cram his health care bill through which only 38% of Americans support.

0bama and his dimocrat minions sang a different tune at one time:

51 Vote ‘Nuclear Option’ Is ‘Arrogant’ Power Grab Against the Founder’s Intent

www.breitbart.tv/obama-dems-in-2005-51-vote-nuclear-option-is-arrogant-power-grab-against-the-founders-intent/

[rick]

10:34am: Wow, 273 views in just a couple of minutes. Some sicko's out there.

10:44am: Edit: Over 500 views in ten minutes when the maximum number of visitors was 12. Sick puppies.

[milwvu04]

"Reconciliation" sounds so much nicer though...

[agibson]

I didn't follow the link. But, since when is reconciliation the "nuclear option"?

I thought that phrase was reserved, these last few years, for changing the Senate rules to get rid of the filibuster? (Or, anyhow, to change the filibuster threshold to 50 votes.)

The reconciliation process is a much more conventional way of doing business. For example the Clinton welfare reform. Or the Bush tax cuts.

Nothing to see here.

[rick]

Reconciliation is supposed to occur for budgetary items and deficit reduction. To include it in major legislative proposals like healthcare, which would involve the potential government takeover of one-sixth of the economy, is stretching the original intent of the reconciiliation process. 0bama says health care reform will reduce the budget deficit, which only a moron would believe.

The federal budget reconciliation process is a legislative device employed by the U.S. Senate to end a filibuster, close debate and pass controversial budget bills, thereby circumventing the three-fifths rule. Because reconciliation only requires a simple majority, it is a tool primarily used by the majority party.

...Since 1980, the reconciliation process has been used to change national health care policy in a number of subtle ways. In 2010, however, Democrats threatened to use the reconciliation process to implement President Barack Obama's major health care reform package. A similar measure was attempted by President Bill Clinton in 1993, but was struck down due to its conflict with the Byrd Rule*. The budget reconciliation process is typically employed to help reduce major deficits, which is why Republicans opposed using it to add more than a trillion dollars to the nation's debt burden via Obama's health care plan.

* The federal budget reconciliation process arose from language inserted in the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which, in part, allows Senators to pass concurrent budget bills without debate or a presidential signature.

Following passage of the 1974 Act, several senators attempted to attach amendments which had nothing to do with fiscal policy to reconciliation bills. To ensure important legislative initiatives are given proper checks and balances, subsequent reconciliation bills have adopted the "Byrd Rule," which applies to amendments that:
•do not produce a change in outlays or revenues
•produce changes in outlays or revenue which are merely incidental to the non-budgetary components of the provision
•are outside the jurisdiction of the committee that submitted the title or provision for inclusion in the reconciliation measure
•increase outlays or decrease revenue if the provision's title, as a whole, fails to achieve the Senate reporting committee's reconciliation instructions
•increase net outlays or decrease revenue during a fiscal year after the years covered by the reconciliation bill unless the provision's title, as a whole, remains budget neutral
•contain recommendations regarding the OASDI (social security) trust funds

usconservatives.about.com/od/glossaryterms/g/Reconciliation-Process-Defined.htm

[agibson]

Sure, maybe Byrd had deficit reduction in mind. And maybe reconciliation's often been used that way. But, I'm not convinced this is a stretch beyond other historical examples.

Health care reform has significant budgetary implications, as I'm sure you'll agree. Maybe it will increase the deficit. The Bush tax cuts certainly did, and yet they were passed through the reconciliation process (if with ten year sunsets).

[rick]

www.investors.com/image/RAMclr031210_FULL.jpg.cms