Health care: Dems just don't have the votes

Washington Examiner ^ | 02/23/10 | Byron York

[OldDeckHand]

Now that the White House and Democrats are making a last push to pass their so-far-unpassable national health care bills, the only thing that matters is whether they can get 217 votes for victory in the House and 50 votes (plus the vice-president's tie-breaker) for reconciliation in the Senate. Good policy doesn't matter. Bad policy doesn't matter. All that matters is votes.

The White House and Democrats have lost sight of the essential insanity of the process -- desperately searching for corners to cut so they can pass an enormous re-ordering of the American economy that Americans don't want -- because all they can think about now is passing something. It could be anything, as long as it is "comprehensive."

So where are the votes? Start in the House. House Democrats have to do two things. First, they have to pass the health care bill that Senate Democrats passed on December 24 -- Cornhusker Kickback, Louisiana Purchase and all. They could stop there and send the bill to the president's desk, but that, of course, is not going to happen. So they then have to pass a set of agreed-upon "fixes" to the Senate bill that the Senate would then pass by using the reconciliation process. (The fixes will start in the House; reconciliation bills have to originate in the House because all revenue measures have to originate in the House.)

[RedMDer]

“WHATEVER THEY CANT PASS OBAMA WILL PASS BY EXECUTIVE ORDER...”

Well then we just order the executive out and walk like the perp that he is.

[philetus]

Well then we just order the executive out and walk like the perp that he is.”

You better have a lot of backup.

[RedMDer]

You better have a lot of backup.

[fortheDeclaration]

That's exactly the point. The Senate - because of the filibuster - was limited by Nelson, Lieberman and a couple others. But, because of the Budget Reconciliation process, they only need 50 votes (plus Biden). Maybe the Senate or House Parliamentarian objects to some of the provisions in the Reconciliation Bill, maybe they don't. It's not an exact science, and the Parliamentarians do have some latitude in making their decisions. Also, rulings of Congressional Parliamentarians are not subject to judicial review, or so has been the tradition.

It isn't the Senate that is the problem for the Democrats, it is the House,and they won't pass the Senate version.