In his opening remarks at the health care summit this morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sought to…downplay…the likelihood that Democrats will finish off health care reform by using the reconciliation process.
“No one has talked about reconciliation,” he said.
It’s true that reconciliation isn’t the only technical way to finish off reform. And Reid would likely be happier not using reconciliation–he’d rather get one or two Republican votes and finish off reform through the regular order. But the fact is, if Democrats do pass health care, they will in all likelihood do so by using the reconciliation process.
It is a much-discussed option to say the least.
At his press conference this week, Reid pointed out that it’s on the table. “Since 1981, reconciliation has been used 21 times. The vast majority of those reconciliation efforts have been by Republicans,” Reid said. “So we have — nothing’s off the table. We’ll be happy to take a look at that, but realistically, they should stop crying about reconciliation as if it’s never been done before. It’s done almost every Congress, and they’re the ones that used it more than anyone else.”
That’s not to say that reconciliation would be used to pass an entire health care reform bill. Rather, the House would pass the Senate health care bill, and reconciliation would be used to pass a small bill making changes to the comprehensive package at the margin.
