Today in Washington, D.C. - Mar 1, 2010 - Democrats Wrong On Reconciliation - Ignoring Majority of Americans

The Senate will consider H.R. 4213, the tax extenders bill. The bill extends tax provisions that expired at the end of the year such as state sales tax deductions and the research and development tax credit. Finance Committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT) is expected to offer a substitute amendment that will likely include extensions to unemployment benefits, COBRA subsidies, and highway funding that expired this week. No votes are schedule today. Around noon on Tuesday, the Senate is scheduled to vote on cloture on the nomination of Barbara

Over the weekend, much of the discussion following last week’s health care summit was over whether Democrats would choose to use the partisan tactic known as reconciliation to jam their health care bill through the Senate with only 51 votes, instead of the 60 votes controversial legislation traditionally needs to pass.

The Washington Post reports, “Raising the prospect of a ‘simple up-or-down vote’ on health-care reform, White House adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle said on Sunday she thinks Democrats will secure enough ayes on the measure and signaled that the administration could be moving toward trying to pass it along party lines.” And according to The Hill, “[Senate Majority Whip Dick] Durbin defended Democrats’ plans to move forward with their healthcare bill using the budget reconciliation process, only to the objection of Republicans, who claim the 50-vote process is hyperpartisan and has never been used on legislation of this magnitude. ‘We have used this process for big ideas in the past,’ Durbin said during an appearance on MSNBC. ‘It can be used this time.’”

In fact, reconciliation has never been used on a partisan basis to pass major legislation not dealing solely with revenue issues. Democrats are fond of pointing to welfare reform in the 1990’s and President Bush’s 2001 tax cuts, but both of those measures had significant bipartisan support, and welfare reform was signed by President Clinton.

In this case, the only thing bipartisan is the opposition to the Democrats’ health care bill. Last year, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), the former majority leader, wrote in The Washington Post, “I was one of the authors of the legislation that created the budget ‘reconciliation’ process in 1974, and I am certain that putting health-care reform and climate change legislation on a freight train through Congress is an outrage that must be resisted.”

And of course, the American people not only overwhelmingly oppose the Democrat bill, a clear majority oppose Democrats using reconciliation to push it through. Last week, a CNN poll found that “48 percent [of Americans say] lawmakers should work on an entirely new bill and a quarter [say] Congress should stop all work on health care reform.” That’s 73% saying Congress should start over on health care reform or stop altogether. And a Gallup poll found that Americans oppose the use of reconciliation by a 52%-39% margin. Fifty-three percent of independents oppose such a move and even 24% of Democrats are against it.

As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on CNN yesterday, “[T]he American people do not want us to use that kind of parliamentary device to jam this down their throats. In Washington, they want to portray this as an argument between Republicans and Democrats. This is an argument between the Democrats and the American people. We know the American people oppose this bill and they oppose using reconciliation to pass this bill. This is really the Democratic majority, in frankly an arrogant way, saying we are smarter than you are Americans, and we are going to give this to you whether you want it or not.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) in The Washington Post wrote: "Reconciliation on health care would be an assault to the democratic process. America's Founders gave us a system of governance designed to limit government power and maximize liberty. The legislative branch is different from the executive, and the Senate is different from the House. No single branch has all the power. That can be frustrating for those with ambitious agendas, but everyone benefits by respecting those checks and balances even as we fight over policies. While the House is designed for action, the Senate is designed for deliberation. That is why Senate rules and procedures give a minority of senators the power to slow or even stop legislation. . . .

"This use of reconciliation to jam through this legislation, against the will of the American people, would be unprecedented in scope. And the havoc wrought would threaten our system of checks and balances, corrode the legislative process, degrade our system of government and damage the prospects of bipartisanship. . . . The president said in his State of the Union address that "we were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions. So let's show the American people we can do it together." I agree. Poll after poll tells us that is what Americans want. To do that we must start by taking the reconciliation procedure off the table. . . ."

---

Tags: government healthcare, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!