The Reconciliation Sideshow
Washington,
Mar 16 -
Some House Democrats who claim to dislike the Senate health care bill also seem to think they can safely support it while hopping aboard a “sidecar” reconciliation bill whose contents remain hidden from public view.
Here’s the problem with that theory: reconciliation isn’t a sidecar; it’s a sideshow meant to distract Americans from the awful details of the Senate bill.
Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are counting on the House to pass the Senate bill this week before the President gets the heck out of Dodge on Sunday. If that happens, everything Americans hate about the Senate bill (including the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, taxpayer funding for abortion, the individual mandate, the special tax exemption for Big Labor…) will become the law of the land.
But what about this sidecar bill everyone’s talking about? There are zero guarantees that it gets through the Senate without significant alterations (remember the Byrd Rule). Zip, nada, zilch. And no one knows if the House and Senate will ever agree on a final version to send to the President’s desk. It’s just a sideshow.
The Senate bill is the main event. Are there really 216 House Democrats willing to put all its toxic provisions into law? Only time will tell.
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