Health Reform Is About More than Federal Spending
By Newt Gingrich
Just a few short weeks ago at the health summit Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid uttered a remarkably dishonest and in retrospect ironic statement claiming that nobody is talking about reconciliation to pass the health bill. It was a dishonest statement because Democrats have been openly floating the specter of passing the health bill using reconciliation since it first became obvious it would have difficulty passing the Senate including just days before the summit by Sen. Reid himself.
It was ironic because it seems that all the cable news shows talk radio blogs and pundits have been talking about since the summit is whether President Obama Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will use the Senate budget reconciliation process to pass their big government big bureaucracy health bill.
But what exactly is the reconciliation process? And why exactly is it so controversial a move to pass the health bill?
A Tool for Congress to Meet Spending Goals
The budget reconciliation process was created in 1974 as part of the law that created much of the modern rules and organizational structures used by Congress to pass the annual budget.
This new law required Congress to pass a budget resolution every year that would set the parameters by which the various congressional committees would write their specific parts of the total budget bill.
Within these budget resolutions instructions can be given to specific congressional committees to create legislation that would alter current laws affecting spending and/or taxation in order to conform to the targets set out in the budget resolution.
To enhance Congress ability to meet budget resolution targets these pieces of legislation are not passed under the normal rules of the Senate. Instead they fall under the budget reconciliation process" rules which prohibit unrelated amendments to the bills and set a maximum of 20 hours of debate on the floor.
As a practical matter this means only 51 votes are needed to pass a reconciliation bill because the limit on debate overrides the threat of a filibuster.
The Byrd Rule to Prevent Abuse of Reconciliation
While the budget reconciliation process was a success in its principal goal of giving Congress more power to meet the spending and revenue goals of the budget resolution it quickly became prone to abuse.
Provisions that had nothing to do with meeting budget resolution requirements even some that directly contradicted them were passed using the reconciliation process.
To prevent this the so-called Byrd Rule" named after Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd who introduced the legislation was passed in 1985 and made permanent in 1990.
The Byrd Rule allows any senator to raise a point of order objection to provisions in a reconciliation bill that they consider extraneous to meeting budget resolutions requirements. Then it is up to the chair either the Vice President (as President of the Senate) or more often the presiding officer of the Senate if the Vice President is not present -- whether that provision stays or is stricken.
However the chair almost always relies on the advice of the Senate Parliamentarian to determine if that objection is legitimate. (Learn more about the parliamentarian here.)
This determination is made based on six tests created as part of the Byrd Rule used to weed out provisions that have nothing to do with raising or reducing taxes or spending. It takes a 3/5 majority vote to override the decision of the presiding officer if he or she finds that a provision violates one or more of these tests. (This Congressional Research Service report is a good primer on the Byrd rule if you want to learn more.)
Reconciliation in Action
Reconciliation has been used for 22 bills of which 14 were passed by Republican majorities. Nineteen of those bills were signed into law by the President. Three were vetoed. You can view a chart of these bills here.
Notice the similarity between them?
All of these bills were obviously directly related to taxation and spending and since 1985 have successfully met the Byrd rule tests.
Health Reform Is About More than Federal Spending
This is why passing the lefts big government big bureaucracy health bill using the budget reconciliation process is so fundamentally dishonest and
dangerous to Senate precedent.
Leaving aside the bills merits (which to be clear are abysmal) both its defenders and detractors would acknowledge that it is for better or worse a fundamental overhaul of the nations health system both public and private.
It sets new rules and regulations that span the entire healthcare sector. It is much larger in scope and more all encompassing in purpose than simply affecting federal spending and revenues.
This is not to say that the bill would not have some effect on the federal budget. Almost any piece of legislation could meet that meager standard.
The reconciliation process was only intended to be used for legislation directly related to meeting budget resolution spending and revenue goals.
This is one reason why a number of Democrats including Sen. Robert Byrd author of the Byrd Rule and who also helped create the budget reconciliation process in 1974 called the idea of using it to pass the health bill (and cap and trade) an outrage that must be resisted.
Its also why Robert Byrd objected to President Clintons efforts to pass Hillarycare in 1993 using reconciliation.
Why should the lefts latest big government healthcare grab be held to any different standard? American people have overwhelmingly rejected it.
A poll we released at the Center for Health Transformation showed that it is opposed by a 2-1 margin. It is a fact that the more Americans learn about the lefts plan both its substance and the corrupt manner in which it has been passed the more they oppose it.
Three Corrupt Options for the Left
The lefts big government big bureaucracy health bill is overwhelmingly unpopular with the American people. It is incapable of obtaining any bipartisan support in the Senate.
Faced with this reality President Obama Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid should do the responsible thing and scrap the unpopular bill and start over
focusing instead on smaller pieces of legislation that could obtain bipartisan support.
However theyve made it clear they arent willing to do this. The Democrats are determined to pass a comprehensive health bill no matter how unpopular it is. This means they have to use reconciliation to avoid needing 60 votes to end debate in the Senate.
There are several corrupt options available to the Democrats using reconciliation.
One option would be for the House to pass the exact same health bill the Senate passed in December (thus avoiding the need for the Senate to marshal 60 votes again for a final bill now that Scott Brown is in office) with an understanding that a separate bill with a series of fixes would be passed immediately afterward using the budget reconciliation process in the Senate.
The left argues that technically this would keep the use of reconciliation fairly narrow. However the plain truth of the matter is that the Democrats would be using the budget reconciliation process to pass a bill they could not otherwise pass using the normal legislative process.
It is a dirty trick that ignores congressional tradition and the overwhelming opposition to the bill from America.
For President Obama Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to promise to pass a bill when they in reality dont know what the final bill will look like is the height of irresponsibility. (Of course they passed the stimulus without reading it so it would certainly fit with their precedent.)
How Far Are The Democrats Willing To Go?
This all brings us to a drastic option for the Democrats to get their high tax big government big bureaucracy health bill passed.
With the American people overwhelmingly opposed to the health bill not to mention every other part of the lefts agenda and the political environment turning increasingly toxic for the Democrats President Obama Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi could decide to make a cynical calculated political decision
Republicans Must Vow To Replace the Lefts Health Bill
If the Democrats are bound and determined to exert all their power and manipulate every rule they can to pass their big government health bill
Republicans may not be able to stop its passage.
But no matter what President Obama Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid decide the bottom line for Republicans is that they must stand with the American people in opposing this bill.
And if President Obama is still determined to ignore the will of the people by vetoing the Republican bill after such a clear message from America it means that the Republican candidate for President in 2012 must run on a platform that includes signing the replacement of the lefts big government health bill.
After all no matter what dirty tricks the politician may try to get his way in America the people have the final say.
