First Read does a good job of explaining how the budget reconciliation process would work for the health care reform bill. If you are following this debate, you should definitely take five minutes to read it. I think it is still too close to call on whether or not we’re headed for reconciliation. Most of this year I just assumed that the Senate would never pass health reform with a public option. But the situation has been improving lately. If I had to bet, I’d bet that we’re still headed for reconciliation. There is also a chance that the public option will be dropped and the bill will still pass. At least the unpredictability makes things interesting to watch.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
It must be rough to grow up with the last name ‘Crapo.’
Pathetic. Rockefeller’s public option amendment fails [8-15.
Bill Nelson, Tom Carper, Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, and Blanche Lincoln voted no.
Nelson will probably flip and vote for Schumer version.
was there ever any real doubt in anyone’s mind as to the outcome?
No. Not really. Although I had some hope that Lincoln would come around and Nelson surprised me. But Rockefeller treated him like an idiot during the debate so he deserved a no vote from Nelson.
link
so shumer’s goes down 14-9…wheeeeee.
reconciliation has been a foregone conclusion for weeks, if not months. it’s a damn shame we had to go through this charade to get there.
this doesn’t really mean we go to reconciliation necessarily. The finance bill must be melded with the HELP bill. That’s the first chance to put the public option back in. Then the Senate and House versions must be melded. That would be a second chance if the first chance doesn’t happen.
if you look at my strategy piece, you’ll see that failure in Finance was assumed from the beginning.
Does anyone want to seriously argue that President Kucinich could have moved one of these votes from ‘no’ to ‘aye,’ or that he could have gotten anything more ambitious out of the Senate Finance Committee?