The surprise election of the dauntingly attractive Scott Brown to fill the Massachusetts Senate seat left by the late Ted Kennedy has left Democratic Congressional leaders struggling to find ways to pass their landmark health care reform legislation. The budget process called reconciliation, which only requires 51 votes for the Senate to consider a contentious bill, might be the Democrats’ last chance to do so. Politico reports:
The move comes with political risk, because it would open Democrats up to charges that they pressed ahead with roughly the same health care bill that voters appeared to reject in the Massachusetts Senate race Tuesday. Republican Scott Brown won on a pledge to try to block Obama-style health reform.
As Hardball host Chris Matthews made clear on his show last night in an unusually aggressive interview with Democrat Alan Grayson of Florida, the move might not only be unpopular, but also extremely difficult to pull off. Grayson, of course, claimed on the floor last year that the GOP health care plan consists mainly of telling patients to ‘die quickly’ in one of the most bizarre uses of a prop during a floor speech since Thaddeus McCotter gave his colleagues a quick English lesson.
Changes to the bill made through the reconciliation process, according to the Byrd rule, are required to be germane to the budget and are subject to numerous other budgetary restrictions. (Read more about the restrictions imposed by the Congressional Budget Act on the reconciliation process from the House Web site HERE)
Some of the proposed changes include:
… the deal with labor unions to ease the tax on high-end insurance plans, additional Medicare cuts and taxes, the elimination of a special Medicaid funding deal for Nebraska and a move to help cover the gap in seniors’ prescription drug coverage. Pelosi is also working to change the Senate provision that sets up state insurance exchanges. The House prefers a single, national exchange.
Still, spokespeople for both Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Pelosi refuse to confirm that these proposed changes are final.
Despite the apparent difficulties of using the process, and also new polls that suggest health care reform is increasingly frustrating Americans — including a Rasmussen Reports survey that says 61% of Americans feel that “Congress should drop health care reform and focus on more immediate ways to improve the economy and create jobs” — health care reform still appears to be Congressional Democrats’ top priority.
“They’ve waited their entire adult lives for this moment and they aren’t ready to let 100,000 pesky votes in Massachusetts get in the way of fulfilling their destiny. They’ll look at every option and spend the next four or five days figuring it out,” Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) told the National Review.
Full story: Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi work to save health care reform – Politico
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