Posted on 03/02/2010 3:40:50 PM PST by truthandlife
White House officials tell ABC News that in his remarks tomorrow President Obama will indicate a willingness to work with Republicans on some issue to get a health care reform bill passed but will say that if it is necessary, Democrats will use the controversial reconciliation rules requiring only 51 Senate votes to pass the "fix" to the Senate bill.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been awaiting the president’s remarks direction on how health care reform will proceed.
In his remarks, scheduled to be at the White House, the president will paint a picture of what he will say will happen without a health care reform bill – skyrocketing premiums, everyone at the mercy of the insurance industry as recently seen with the 39% premium increases proposed by Anthem Blue Cross in California.
He will note that the “fixed” bill will include the proposal for a new "Health Insurance Rate Authority" to set guidelines for reasonable rate increases. If proposed premium increases are not justifiable per those Health Insurance Rate Authority guidelines, the Health and Human Services Secretary or state regulators could block them.
The president will outline the plan to pass the bill, including having the House of Representatives pass the Democratic Senate health care reform legislation as well as a second bill containing various “fixes.”
He will say that if Republicans refuse to allow and up or down vote in the Senate on the fixes to the bill, Democrats will use the reconciliation rules.
He will argue these rules are perfectly appropriate because the procedure is not being used for the whole bill, just for some fixes; because reconciliation rules are traditionally used for deficit reduction and health care reform will reduce the deficit;
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.abcnews.com ...
No matter what the Senate Republicans promise the house has to pass the senate bill. Is Obama inviting the GOP to a conference bill negotiation if the GOP Senate waives a filibuster in the conference bill.
I think Obama is screwed.
Well, excuuse me, but What about US? 200 Million of us can drive to D.C. this weekend if that's what you want! Passing this with the nuclear option is a Declaration of War on all the States by Washington D.C.!
Call, write, FAX, and Be There if you can in the morning. This is it!
I'm not sure exactly what you're saying, but to be clear - there wouldn't be a conference report as there isn't a conference committee. The House would pass the Senate bill in its entirety. But, before they do that, both Houses of Congress would pass (preemptively, if you will) a Reconciliation Bill. Those two pieces of legislation would then travel to Obama for his signature.
Long story short, the Dems problem isn't in the Senate, it's mainly in the House. Can Nan get 218 (really 217 with all the recent departures)?
For normal legislation that is absolutely true - for the Committee Chairman in the Senate to hold a vote to bring the bill to the full Senate, he must ask for objections. If there are objections - which there was when this bill was in the Senate Finance Committee - then to overrule that objection, the majority holds a vote and it MUST collect at least one vote from the minority party, plus at least 9 (or it could be 10, I can't remember) others.
However, that's for normal legislation. That's not the procedure spelled out in the rules for a Reconciliation Bill, unfortunately.
BUT, there's always a but, the biggest problem that I see with Reconciliation is the Byrd Rule - and specifically the Rule that says the Reconciliation provision CANNOT increase the annual federal deficits 10 years after the passage of the bill.
The problem is the so-called Cadillac Tax. When CBO initially scored the original Senate bill, it came out so favorably because of the Cadillac Tax, and especially what the Cadillac Tax did the in the last 10 years of the projection - IOW, 10 years from the passage of the bill. The House wants to gut the Cadillac Tax and this would have profound deficit impact, especially after 10 years. There's no mathematical way that they can raise the threshold in the Cadillac Tax, and still raise the money they were going to raise with the initial Senate Bill's Cadillac Tax. Again, IOW, it would raise the budget deficit, if it was scored honestly and accurately. This makes the Byrd Rule very problematic for passing this behemoth using Budget Reconciliation. Why no one's talking about this, is anyone's guess.
And the State Media...
That is probably true, but why does Obama even address the Republicans at all. Only Democrats can stop the health care bill.
"Reconciliation" is to be used ONLY for votes on budget resolutions -yes? The Democrats and media are telling the American peoples that the confiscation of their health insurance (in order to give it away to others) is a "budgetary" issue.
Either you use 60 votes for this kind of massive policy vote, or you don't.
Everything else is rubbish.
Obamanation: “Yap yap yap, blah blah blah, reconciliation, yap yap yap!”
Pelousi: “Yap yap yap, blah blah blah, reconciliation, yap yap yap!”
Reality: no reconciliation vote!
Point: If they had the votes to do it, they’d have already done it.
Don’t forget that by refusing to fund it, it then becomes a budgetary issue... therefore ‘reconciliation’ can be used to drop the voting requirements down to a simple majority.
See, the Democraps did teach me something!
:-P
Bingo! Imagine how much a Toyota would cost in California if it were the only carmaker allowed to sell there.
You are absolutely right.
Even here, people are attacking Obama for "cuts in seniors' benefits" - as if Medicare will exist in ten years.
It's absurd.
The key issue is the House passing the Senate version.
On the other hand, if they pass Obamacare with 51 votes, they could do the same with amnesty and other miscellaneous legislative mayhem.
Yes he would.
Agreed. Seems like this is following exactly the M.O. process prior to the second “revised” version of the EESA (Emergency Economic Stabilization Act). The SENATE’S version of the bill becomes law, the meat of the legislation.
Only in this case (so called “Healthcare) , they can’t put the bennies in the deal for the House as they did in H 1424 i.e. ( law 110-343). Because the Vampire Care bill has already been written. Thus R-C-O-N cilliation.
(Note that the H. Clinton HOLC talking point, yet that too is coming to pass (edit.. i.e the moratorium part))
So called “healthcare” and “pensions” are not really funds they are/were investments and underwater?
Seems like the “YOU CARD” (call “it” what you want, in that “offical letter”/ or some form/contact that will be sent), is the unlimited credit line they have been after.. Multi-purposed as a public pension/healthcare bailout, preventing the flooding of ocean of money (inflation) on the fed’s balance (”un-balanced) sheet. (Otherwise the real hyper-printing will actually have to begin). They don’t want to lose the value of their assets, as the millions that have lost employment have.
.... based on the backs of producers, the productive private class. The currently employed, that is NOT employed by government public financing.
“used for deficit reduction and health care reform will reduce the deficit”
These days, this is all everyone does: claim some tenuous connection to what really is applicable (most famously, this is done with the “Commerce Clause”). E.g., same thing with seat-belt “safety” laws because it will “reduce everyone’s insurance rates”.
So would using Budget Reconciliation to pass Obamacare. The only differences I see are the automatic expiration and tedious maneuvers (passing the reconciliation bill first but the pres. signs it last). Using the VP to overrule the parliamentarian is pretty "nuclear."
The Senate and it's Senators don't want to be like the House.
If this skullduggery works, they will be unless we get a Constitutional amendment to correct the problem.
“we can repeal this”
Yes, you’re correct, but reality is that once things get going, they’re about impossible to stop.
God forbid they build the building and have those precious new employees in house; it’s always “oh, we don’t want to kick all these people out of their jobs”, worthless as they may be.
My point is that they won’t be able to pass Obamacare with 51 votes because they would first need the House to approve the Senate bill, and that’s not going to happen. Obama is whistling past the graveyard here, and taking all of the oxygen out of those other harmful things that Democrats want to do. He couldn’t do a better job for us if he were a GOP plant.
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