Community | March 06, 2010 | 3 comments

Reconciliation Misinformation not Healthy

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/05/AR2010030503248.html?nav=rss...

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Reconciliation is not an option for health-care reform
A lot of misinformation has been spread recently about the budget reconciliation process. As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, I have the primary responsibility for budget-related matters in the Senate. So let me set the record straight.

Reconciliation is not being considered for passing comprehensive health-care reform. Major health-care reform legislation passed the Senate without reconciliation on Christmas Eve. If the House now passes that legislation, it can go immediately to President Obama's desk to be signed into law. What the president and others have suggested is that, after the House acts, reconciliation could then be used to pass a much smaller "fixer" bill to allow for modifications to the comprehensive bill that will have passed under regular order.

While some have described reconciliation -- a process that requires only a majority vote in the Senate to pass legislation that reduces the deficit -- as an obscure, rarely used procedure, the truth is that it has been used 22 times since 1980, with 16 of those times occurring when Republicans controlled the Senate. Republican efforts to block its use now for a "fixer" bill represent little more than a politically expedient attempt to kill health-care legislation.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/05/AR2010030503248..../columns

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