Did the Senate Parliamentarian Just Kill Obamacare?

Weekly Standard ^

[Sub-Driver]

Did the Senate Parliamentarian Just Kill Obamacare? BY John McCormack March 11, 2010 3:39 PM

This is big, big news (if true):

The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that President Barack Obama must sign Congress’ original health care reform bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package, senior GOP sources said Thursday.

The Senate Parliamentarian’s Office was responding to questions posed by the Republican leadership. The answers were provided verbally, sources said.

House Democratic leaders have been searching for a way to ensure that any move they make to approve the Senate-passed $871 billion health care reform bill is followed by Senate action on a reconciliation package of adjustments to the original bill. One idea is to have the House and Senate act on reconciliation prior to House action on the Senate’s original health care bill.

Information Republicans say they have received from the Senate Parliamentarian’s Office eliminates that option. House Democratic leaders last week began looking at crafting a legislative rule that would allow the House to approve the Senate health care bill, but not forward it to Obama for his signature until the Senate clears the reconciliation package.

House Democrats do not trust the Senate; they do not want to pass the Senate bill--with all the special deals in it--and hope the Senate will fix these problems and others later. Even Democrat Michael Capuano of Massachusetts is expressing very grave concerns about passing the Senate bill unamended.

If this report is true, the parliamentarian's ruling seems to nix the "Slaughter Solution," whereby the House would deem the Senate bill passed only after the reconciliation bill is passed by both the House and the Senate.

So where do Democrats go from here? One possibility is that Harry Reid will fire the Senate parliamentarian.

If Democrats really think they can get away with such a heavy-handed move in the first place, they might as well replace the parliamentarian with Rahm Emanuel and kill two birds with one stone.

[Eye of Unk]

I’m waiting for Obamas impeachable move, when he does something about Obamacare that is clearly illegal.

Something that will be whats needed to remove him from office.

[Bean Counter]

I’m watching Special report, and Charles Krauthammer just said that there is discussion among the Democrats of having Vice President Joe Biden, President of the Senate, over rule the Parliamentarian on this in order to pass Health Care.

I kid you not.

Charles says this would be a Thermo-Nuclear option if they did, but if it came to that it would still be harder than hell to revoke later on. In just a year or so there would be an almost irretrievably hopeless mess.

[Mr. Wright]

It is my understanding that Joe Biden, as President of the Senate, has the authority to overrule an decision of the Parliamentarian. Sadly, I don’t think this ruling has any chance of holding water.

[Senator_Blutarski]

I'm coming to believe that there has been a paradigm shift. The Democrat leadership is playing for long term gain, the short term be damned. The Democrat Party wins in the long term if Obamacare is passed. They are willing to sacrifice the 2010 election in order to own the future.

[sport]

I would not go as far as saying it is dead. The Democrats do not give a damn about the law.

A better question for us would be what are we going to do when they pass it.

If it had not been for that Republican bitch it would still be in committee.

[mware]

Can Joe Biden overrule this?

Krauthammer just referred to this as the thermonuclear option.