Break Out the Bulldozers

The Obama administration and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are determined to shred every procedural roadblock standing in the way of their massive restructuring of the health insurance industry in this country.

At first, it was only reconciliation. Normally, the House passes legislation. Then the Senate passes their own version of the same bill. Then a conference committee of Senators and Representatives negotiates a compromise version of the bill, that is voted on again by both Houses of Congress. When that passes, it goes to the President for signature to be enacted into law.

The problem with that system (at least from Obama and Pelosi’s point of view), is that the compromise legislation has to pass the Senate again. With the election of Scott Brown from Massachusetts to fill the seat of the late Edward Kennedy, there are now 41 Republicans in the Senate. With a united front, they can filibuster the bill until it dies a natural death.

Hence the reconciliation maneuver. Under Senate rules, passage of measures affecting the budget can have the compromise, or “reconciled” version passed through the Senate on a vote requiring only a majority of 51 votes. Since the filibuster does not apply, sixty votes are not required to cut off debate.

Pelosi’s reconciliation plan then becomes to push through a House vote on the original Senate version of the health insurance restructuring. The House will then pass a series of amendments to the Senate version, making it more to their liking. This package of amendments will then be presented as a budgetary reconciliation, which can avoid the filibuster. The fig leaf covering this end run around the rules is that Obamacare is intended to reduce the deficit.

I have been watching television for well over forty years. I have been exposed to millions of commercial messages. I have become quite adept at knowing when I’m being lied to.

I know that the fast food hamburger will not be plump and juicy like it shows on screen. I know that if I spray on a cheap cologne, women will not leap out of the woodwork, seeking to have their way with me. And I know that the current package of health insurance reform will not reduce the deficit.

Obamacare is not a budget reconciliation bill, it is a policy bill, and using the process of reconciliation to get a around the procedures of limited government stinks to high heaven.