Legal Commentary

How They Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Reconciliation

By Big Tent Democrat

Matt Yglesias:

The clearest path forward for health reform is for House Democrats to (a) pass the Senate bill, and (b) pass a “sidecar” of amendments that deal with reconciliation-eligible topics, allowing House leaders to improve the bill by modifying the “cadillac” tax and replacing the Senate’s state-based exchanges with a nationwide exchange. But Carrie Budoff Brown reports that not every Senator likes this idea:

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Monday that he would oppose any health care reform bill with a national insurance exchange, which he described as a dealbreaker. [. . .] If Senate Democrats still had 60 votes, this would matter a lot.

[. . .] The real point, however, is that Nelson’s views are irrelevant. The exchange set-up will either be determined by reconciliation or else nothing will be done. Either way, he doesn’t matter.

(Emphasis supplied.) They are beginning to get it. They have the best of both worlds from their perspective - a locked in Senate vote that can be amended with the agreement of only 50 Senators. Gawd forbid they get ambitious about it.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 26, 2010 (boomark / email).