Budget reconciliation is the way to go

The Republicans, always eager to discover some totally un-American, un-Constitutional plot have decided (unanimously, of course) that the use of the federal budget reconciliation process to pass health insurance reform would be a grave threat, a step along the path toward socialism or worse.  It is an easier way to pass legislation, since it employees the principle of "majority rule."  51% support can do it, rather than 60 votes.

What they conveniently forget, however, is that budget reconciliation is how Ronald Reagan passed many aspects of his own economic recovery and political "reform" proposals shortly after taking office.  The key statute was OBRA 81, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, a far-reaching piece of legislation indeed.

Nobody thought, as best as I can remember, that this was in any way shocking.  It is just how the Senate works, following the Senate's rules.

I'll need to go up to the attic and dust off some history books to get all the specific details.  But anyhow, there is nothing inappropriate or unusual about budget reconciliation, particularly in times of difficult economic straits, which both Reagan faced when he took office after the 1980 election (not at bad then, though) and as Obama faces now (much worse).

I realize that this kind of an appeal to facts, reason, and history would go right over the heads of 99.9% of the American public, and probably 98% of the journalists who make a living covering the White House and Congress.  And it doesn't make good tv:  complaining about the threat of the "nuclear option" (sic), as Republicans have been taught to term it, attracts a lot more attention.

But it is all made up--kind of like Alice in Wonderland, and there is nothing in it to get excited about.  Hardly anyone thinks that "majority rule" is a bad system; it is how most official decisions are made in this nation.  Perhaps it is time to put what we preach back into practice.  Just like Ronald Reagan did.

Or, alternately, as the Mock Turtle said, we can get along with "Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with, and then the different branches of arithmetic -- Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision."  

That's the GOP's "new math."

Comments

[Snowy]

[this is good] I think the U.S. public are going to be mightily fed up with the obstructionist antics of the Repubs if they continue down this path. I can see a big backlash against them coming, and well deserved too.

[DoctorD42]

Snowy, one problem I fear is that much of the legislation won't have an effect for several years--even if it were passed tomorrow.  So the benefits may be hard to see and demonstrate.  Hoping you are right, though.