Obama may use 50-vote tactic on energy, healthcare

The Hill ^ | 3/1/09 | Jim Snyder

[Nachum]

President Obama’s budget director said the White House would consider using a Senate procedural tactic so that only 50 votes would be rquired to pass major healthcare and energy reforms.

Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration would prefer not to use the budget reconciliation process to push through its package. But he added: "We have to keep everything on the table. We want to get these.... important things done this year." Orszag called healthcare in particular "the key to our fiscal future."

[Political Junkie Too]

Obama's Scorched Earth Approach. Destroys all chances for bipartisanship for years to come.

-PJ

[jafojeffsurf]

Tie in Senate means VP votes, that’s how they can get 51.

[Wiseghy]

Note how big health care figures in this.

He will use the current crisis as a smoke screen to take over 15% of our GDP, and the remaining 60% of health care that is outside of direct government control.

Soon, we will owe our lives to self-appointed committees who will ration treatment and care. They will, literally. decide who lives and who dies.

[Cboldt]

-- .Obama’s going to order Harry Reid around on which Senate rules to follow and which ones to chuck. --

Not exactly. Reid will be "in" on the deal in any event. There are certain legislative subject matters that have a statutory time limit for debate, so the usual Senate protocol of "unlimited" debate is inapplicable. Somewhere I have a list of those items ... I do recall it is in the Gold/Gupta piece that described Senate procedure, filibuster and cloture, in the context of stalled voting on judicial nominees.

[HollyB]

Yes, and it means he will use any means avilable to him to get what he wants. He has a team lawyers and advisors that know the nooks and cranies of each law and they intend to use it to their advantage.

[jveritas]

How can they be smart when a majority of them are on welfare or do not pay taxes.

[MagUSNRET]

“If the republicans had done this the media would have called it “the nuclear option” or something similar. I think we need to come up with a snappy nane for thes.

The genocidal option

The final solution

The Chavez gambit”

I humbly submit, that considering it is Obama Pelosi and Reid.....It is the “CHickenshit Trifecta option”

[raybbr]

Don’t forget that in a tie Biden is the tie breaker.

[HollyB]

This is a short video regarding government spending of our GDP. It is expected to double by next year.

http://www.resistnet.com/video/the-stimulus-skyrocket

And we haven’t seen his Universal Health care plan and his Military force larger than the military yet.

[wastedyears]

What if we could possibly beat them by one?

[avacado]

The quicker he fails the better for us.

[VeniVidiVici]

Once again the Democrat Party shows Republicans how to wield power.

The Stupid Party.

We’ll see how the MSM reports this compared to when the Stupid Party hinted at using the “Nuclear Option”. My guess is they’ll call it a “brilliant plan to get things done” this time around.

[SJackson]

Obama is under the impression that "bipartisan" is some sort of sexual preference

Great line

[razbinn]

I won !!!

[HollyB]

You’ve got a good point, and each time I see his numbers drop, I feel a little hope in that one more American has opened their eyes.

However, he is determined, regardless of American opinion. What is really getting on my nerves is is continuous phrase of ‘The American people voted for change and I am giving them change’. Change is a very broad word and cannot be used to describe anything and everything.

[exist]

With Republicans like Michael Steele, Obama just might succeed.

[avacado]

"You’ve got a good point, and each time I see his numbers drop, I feel a little hope in that one more American has opened their eyes."

People have their eyes on their 401Ks, the unemployment rate, and such... When those continue to worsen, they will be looking to give Obama the boot along with the Democrats. The MSM cannot hide the stock market and unemployment rates from the American people.

[Cboldt]

-- Obama's going to order Harry Reid around on which Senate rules to follow and which ones to chuck. --

Oops. Not the Gold/Gupta article. Memory, it's the second thing to go. I forget what the first is.

There are a few matters where the Senate is forbidden to engage in the use of a minority to avoid taking the vote. Budget is one of them.

... there are at least 26 laws on the books today abrogating the filibuster. For example:

• You cannot filibuster a federal budget resolution (Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974).
• You cannot filibuster a resolution authorizing the use of force (War Powers Resolution).
• You cannot filibuster international trade agreements (Bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority Act of 2002).
• And as the minority leader, Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.), well knows, you cannot filibuster legislation under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982.

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/rushton200504211218.asp <- Rushton

[Pride in the USA]

ping

[Burkean]

Isn’t this a violation of the separation of powers? I know the president advises members in Congress, but this article makes it sound like Obama is calling all the shots and the Senate just has to follow suit.

Thank goodness Robert Byrd has started seeing the light and is beginning to stand up.