Reid Leaves Open Option for Extreme Maneuver on Health Care, Energy Overhauls
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is holding the option of using a legislative maneuver to create not only a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system but also a controversial cap and trade energy program, a move that could torpedo bipartisanship.
The maneuver, known as “reconciliation,” protects legislation to which it’s attached from a Senate filibuster. Republicans, in their deep minority status, are in an uproar over the possibility that they will be all but eliminated from the legislative process.
But Republicans are not alone in their opposition. A sizable number of Democrats have protested the move; first and foremost, Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who excluded it from his committee’s budget passed Thursday.
The House has reconciliation instructions in its budget for health care, and Reid left open the door Thursday to adding energy protections as well.
“We’re leaving nothing off the table,” Reid told reporters Thursday, a move that has touched off a firestorm of concern behind the scenes.
So concerned about the possibility of it being used, Sens. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., and Mike Johnanns, R-Neb., sent a letter of strong protest to the majority leader.
As opponents of proposed cap and trade measures, Byrd, the Senate’s most senior member and lead watchdog of Senate rules and decorum, and Johanns told Reid, “Enactment of a cap-and-trade regime is likely to influence nearly every feature of the U.S. economy.
“Legislation so far-reaching should be fully vetted and given appropriate time for debate, something the budget reconciliation process does not allow. Using this procedure would circumvent normal Senate practice and would be inconsistent with the Obama administration’s stated goals of bipartisanship, cooperation, and openness,” they wrote.
******As you all can see, Sen Majority Leader Reid will stop at nothing to Win. Win at any cost! To heck with soaring budget deficits, lost jobs, lost GDP, inflation. Lets tax and spend our way into oblivion for some crazy socialist agenda of Pelosi and Reid.*******
Unions Already Harassing in Indiana at Auto Parts Dealer
And so it begins… Thank you democrats (we should really thank the one and only progressive, FDR).
Another Episode of As The Porkulus Turns
Harry Reid may have shot himself in the foot so to speak, with the stimulus bill that was passed in early February 2009. This is another example of passing a huge bill and not having enough time to review it. Harry and Nancy must have thought that what they originally wrote into the bill would not be changed as it passed through the house and the senate. 2 republicans were able to introduce a provision into the bill that would prohibit casinos from using stimulus money – this provision passed in the senate 73-24.
Harry Reid was opposed to this measure when it was originally passed in February and I would assume that after seeing the House pass a bill that would rescind another provision recently signed via the passage of the stimulus, Harry believes he may be able to overturn this one as well. Harry writes Obama: Read more
