Top Pelosi Aide Says Reconciliation Process Is ‘The Only Way’ To Save Health Reform
Top Pelosi Aide Says Reconciliation Process Is ‘The Only Way’ To Save Health Reform
This morning, during a panel discussion at the Academy Health National Health Policy Conference, a top Pelosi policy aide said that the reconciliation process was “the only way” for Democrats to salvage health reform in the aftermath of the Massachusetts election. “There is only one way to get it done at this stage of the game and that’s a process that the Speaker has outlined,” Wendell Primus, Pelosi’s legislative director said. Congress would have to pass the Senate health care bill alongside a package of fixes using reconciliation.
“The House would have to take up that first because it would involve revenue changes and then the Senate would pass it and then I think hopefully with the passing of that legislation, the House, only then would take up the Senate bill and pass it.”
“The trick in all of this is that the President would have to sign the Senate bill first and then the reconciliation bill would be signed second and the parts of the reconciliation bill that trump the relevant portions of the first signed bill.” “You would really have to use the fact that a later enacted bill takes precedent over a previously enacted bill to achieve the right outcome.” Primus added. He predicted that the reconciliation package of fixes would have to increase the threshold on the Cadillac tax, include more affordability credits, close the donut hole in the Medicare Part D drug benefit, and eliminate the Cornhusker Kickback.
Other Congressional aides agreed with Primus’ assessment and argued that it would be almost impossible to put together a smaller package that achieves any of the Democrats’ objectives because many provisions are interconnected. The staffers also predicted that if Congress fails to pass health care reform before the budget window closes, it’s unlikely that future administrations would take-up the effort.
15 Responses to “Top Pelosi Aide Says Reconciliation Process Is ‘The Only Way’ To Save Health Reform”
Register
RSSLogin
Wonk Room Tweets
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Wonk RoomContact Us
Donate
“The trick in all of this is that the President would have to sign the Senate bill first and then the reconciliation bill would be signed second and the parts of the reconciliation bill that trump the relevant portions of the first signed bill.”
Why, might I ask, are you playing tricks with the procedure? If the President has to sign the Senate bill first, as you acknowledge, why not pass the Senate bill first? What the hell kind of a game is it to have Congress pass bills in the *reverse* order that the President has to sign it? That is ridiculous, and it sets a dangerous precedent. What happens if a future president decides to screw with a future Congress and in a future bill of this type, signs the “fix” and then the underlying bill or just flat out vetoes the underlying bill? What happens then? You will have a freaking process nightmare on your hands.
February 9th, 2010 at 4:54 pmOk, The House could just pass the Senate bill.
February 9th, 2010 at 5:42 pmThe last two CBO scores of the Senate bill were really bad. First, they started to tax Cadillac plans, which would make the rich flee insurance pools to self insurance pools. Then, they started imposing financial cost controls which would cause employers to leave the insurance pools. Single payer is the only way to do this, even incrementally, which is probably why Pennsylvania Democrats have endorsed it unanimously in both houses. http://bit.ly/PennDemsUnanimousSinglePayer
February 10th, 2010 at 10:49 pmThis is old news. Newer information the article ignores inlcudes :
Pelosi has lost votes since she rammed through the House bill – Murtha died, Cao won’t vote for it again, the guy in Florida resigned, Stupack and friends, some libs that want a public option, etc. She no longer has 218, even for the House bill ( let alone the Senate bill ).
So, in order to get 218, she must rely on a handful ( 10 or so ? ) of Dems who voted against it before, to vote FOR it now. I doubt she can find 10 + suicidal Dems who are looking for a sword to fall on.
Next – the ‘fix’ bill has been scored by CBO at 300 billion, from what I hear. So, both Pelosi and Reid need to find ( 218 / 50 ) votes for that massive increase in cost. Not likely.
Then – the Repubs are fully prepared to ‘go to war’ over the ‘trick’ ( Hatch, Demint and others use that exact word ‘war’ ) to stop the reconiliation process – and they can do it.
Bottom line -A ) ‘reconsiliation trick’ is old news, and B ) it won’t work, even if they’re dumb enough to try it ( unlikely ).
It’s just a desparate last-gasp dying fantasy of the defeated left.
February 11th, 2010 at 12:33 pmThe health care problem has to be addressed. Republicans choose to ignore it, as though nothing is wrong. Starting over is simply a ploy to stop it. Republicans have added things to this bill in committee, yet have no intention of voting for it. Requiring 60 votes for anything to get through the Senate is true game playing. After this meeting, it’s time for reconcilliation.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:09 pm:”The health care problem has to be addressed. Republicans choose to ignore it, as though nothing is wrong.”
Bull. The Republicans have offered MANY ideas, bills, and alternatives, to the 2,700 page socialist monstrosities of the Dems.
“Requiring 60 votes for anything to get through the Senate is true game playing.’
After this meeting, it’s time for reconcilliation.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:43 pm( continued )
“Requiring 60 votes for anything to get through the Senate is true game playing.”
Wrong again. It is A ) the rules of the Senate, and B ) the intent of the Constitution, which desired to avoid one-party rule, and ‘the tyranny of the majority’.
” After this meeting, it’s time for reconcilliation.”
Never happen. They might try, but they will fail. ‘Reconciliation’ is the Dems way of trying to avoid reality, and the fact that ‘Elections matter’. The Dems want ‘one party rule’, and they just can’t get away with it. Thank Dog.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:46 pmRepublican Chatter: The idea of one party rule is simply more scare tactics. Republicans are stopping even the appointment of anyone that is up for a position in the administration. What the Republicans are really saying is: “how dare the Democrats win an election and take what belongs to us”. Obama won the election. He now whants to govern, yet Republicans are offended by this. Fact: Republicans were on the committees that the health bill went through. They added things to the bill and voted for it to pass their committee. They have been part of the process. They have stated from the begining that they will oppose this bill, and everything else the administration proposes. 60 votes is not the standard for every proposal.
February 11th, 2010 at 2:25 pmto crawfish, this is why so many Americans are mad at Republican politicians as well. They didn’t represent their party well.
And furthermore, we’re not stating that the Democrats are “taking” anything from us. The American people are upset with the congressional processes in general and that liberties are being compromises. This is not the America that my Grandparents or even parents enjoyed. This is an overtaxed, over-regulated and over governed America.
The Constitution was created to give the American people the power and the states the rights to govern. The federal government was created by the states and was not intended to overpower the people or the state governments.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:20 pmCrawfish – “The idea of one party rule is simply more scare tactics.”
No, it’s a very scary idea that the Dems for a while had enough control that they could, as Obama stated his intentions ‘remake America’. We escaped that only by A ) the inability of the liberal Dem leadership to force complete obedience from their party members, and then B ) the election in MA.
“Republicans are stopping even the appointment of anyone that is up for a position in the administration.”
Then why was one appointed yesterday ? And the one that was not, the union lawyer for the NLRB spot, only got 52 Dem votes ? That’s the Repub’s fault too, right ? Your poorly stated reference to Sen Shelby’s antics, I agree with – he is abusing the hold process.
” What the Republicans are really saying is: “how dare the Democrats win an election and take what belongs to us”. Obama won the election. He now whants to govern,”
No, he wants to ‘re-make America’ ( his words ), and he doesn’t care who likes it ( like the American people ).
Guess what ? I don’t want this little punk nobody from Chicago with no experience in anything except gaming elections ‘re-making America’.
“yet Republicans are offended by this. Fact: Republicans were on the committees that the health bill went through. They added things to the bill and voted for it to pass their committee.”
I don’t recall the committee vote tally, but I know for a fact that any Republicans who voted for it then ( snowe, whoever ) voted AGAINST it later, because in it’s final totality, it was a bill they could not support.
” They have been part of the process. They have stated from the begining that they will oppose this bill, and everything else the administration proposes. 60 votes is not the standard for every proposal.”
Yes, it is, actually, by the long standing Rules of the Senate. Which the Dems are now trying to get around. But they can’t, mainly becuase of something called ‘The Byrd Amendment’, written by one of their own members.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:57 pm“No, it’s a very scary idea that the Dems for a while had enough control that they could”
And we can be very thankful to the Founding Fathers who devised a system where it is difficult to ram through partisan legislation during brief periods of supermajority.
Most of us know that the left-wingers who post their nonsense on these articles aren’t real people. They’re SEIU thugs and OFA-bots and so forth, or just the political version of trolls, shouting out their idiocy over and over.
But it truly amazes me how stupid people have to be in order to support this Democrat ‘reform’ bill. It was drafted by an insurance agency lobby group. It will create an oligopoly of federally-connected insurance/healthcare monoliths like Blue Cross / Blue Shield and Kaiser, and not allow competition to drive prices down or innovation up. And it will take our debt level from crazy to suicidal, all to achieve a scant increase in insurance coverage, not better or cheaper health care.
Every idea pitched by the Republicans is better. You can’t keep playing dumb and saying ‘The Republicans just want to ignore it!’ – they’ve been pitching common-sense reform for ages, but the Democrats and their lackey media have ignored them.
February 11th, 2010 at 8:45 pmcrawfish,
It isn’t Republicans. It is the American people. That is who does not want the bill. The majority of people in this country.
We would likely put up with it anyhow if it passed the way bills are meant to be passed. If you pass it this way we will not put up with it.
Lets see just how many of us law enforcement can put in jail for not having insurance before the jail cells bust. Because it sure is not going to help jobs if you put the working people in jail.
Nor will ilt pay your taxes, for the jobs in government.
February 11th, 2010 at 9:56 pmWhy is it that you libs think that the only fix to healthcare can only come from the federal gov’t – when have they fixed anything? The cost problem would be largely eliminated if Medicare and Medicaid went away or were shifted to the states.
If yiu really want to see how healthcare can be fixed read Jeff Margolis’ “The Information Cure” – this is how true healthcare reform will be accomplished.
February 12th, 2010 at 10:14 am“The health care problem has to be addressed.”
No it doesn’t. In fact, the Federal government has no constitutional authority to do so — it’s a violation of the US Constitution. Read that document, then read the explanation of it (Federalist 45, in this case), then read the 10th Amendment again.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:19 pmIf the democrats pass this through “tricks” as Wendell Primus were quoted as stating, it would not surprise me if Washington, D.C. is burned to the ground.
February 13th, 2010 at 10:43 pm