A Health Legislation Fail-Safe Works, but Not as Expected ("must read" -- stage set w budget bill!)

New York Times ^ | March 26, 2010 | Carl Hulse

[SmartInsight]

"The No. 1 lesson from 1993," said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff and a former Clinton aide, "was to make sure you could use reconciliation for health care and education."

Last April, Mr. Emanuel and Peter R. Orszag, the administration's budget guru, went to Capitol Hill to press Senate Democrats to make sure the budget then being written would provide the ability to approve a health care bill with the simple Senate majority that reconciliation requires.

...Democrats inserted the procedural fail-safe in the budget document, allowing special protection for legislation covering health and education as long as it cut the deficit.

[Lancey Howard]

Exactly! The beautiful thing about these rat tactics is that the Republicans, with simple majorities, can repeal Mengelecare using “reconciliation” and, what the heck, “the Slaughter rule”, too. The rats’ hypocritical howls of indignation - - there is absolutely no shame among them - - will ring hollow.

[brityank]

Suggest you research Alf Landon and 1936 against Truman.

Landon, the Republican, was planning on shutting down Social Security. You know how that went. Once a bureaucracy has given away Other People’s Money to the hoi poloi it is never reversed without major upheaval.

I doubt we - as a country - have the guts and willpower to change this. As my father said, the Allies won the battles against National Socialism, but they are winning the war!