Specter: Democrats Must Use Reconciliation To Pass Health Care Fixes 'Simultaneously'

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn.) urged his Democratic colleagues over the weekend to unite around a plan that would allow them to move forward with health care legislation using a process that requires only 51 votes.

Speaking at a Pennsylvania Progressive forum on Saturday, Specter suggested that the only way to get health care reform passed would be to placate House Democrats who were concerned about passing the Senate bill pro forma. The only way to placate House Democrats, he added, would be to pass amendments to the Senate's legislation "simultaneously" through the use of a process known as reconciliation.

"I believe we ought to pass comprehensive health care reform and we ought to do it now and there is a way to do it," Specter said. "I provided the 60th vote. We passed it in the Senate. Let the House accept it, simultaneously with a bill to make certain changes through reconciliation and 50 votes. There will be no disagreement about taking away the giveaway to Nebraska and Louisiana and the other inappropriate measures but let's move ahead and let's move ahead now."

Specter's remarks could go some way towards alleviating angst among House Democrats who have been hesitant to proceed with health care reform without an explicit guarantee from the Senate that it will make additional changes to the legislative language. There was a rumor that 51 Democratic Senators were crafting a pledge to use reconciliation once the House passed the Senate bill, but leadership aides said it was false.

Still, Democrats on the Hill are noticeably more confident about legislation's prospects today than they were just one week ago. Part of it is simply the product of continuous communications between both chambers. The White House has also been involved in the discussions.

Jim Manley, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) confirmed last week that his boss has had "dozens" of conversations with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on the topic of health care reform since the party lost the Massachusetts Senate seat. Reid has had a conversation with the president as well, Manley said.

On the House side, meanwhile, there is a renewed optimism that the votes will be there to move legislation forward once lawmakers are convinced the Senate can, and will, use reconciliation to make amendments.

"The House really wants the Senate to go first," said Ron Pollack, Founding Executive Director of Families USA, the national organization for health care consumers. "They need to have a sense of trust that the Senate bill will be modified." (Pollack relayed this sentiment shortly after meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi).

Everyone, meanwhile, is gradually moving to the recognition that the worst thing the Democratic Party could do, would be nothing at all. As Jeff Liszt, a Democratic pollster at the firm Anzalone Liszt Research, told a conference organized by Families USA on Friday: "I really see it as existential threat for Democrats if they fail to get health reform through."

Comments

[Mabo]

06:05 PM on 02/24/2010

Democrat HYPOCRISY!!

http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-dems-in-2005-51-vote-nuclear-option-is-arrogant-power-grab-against-the-founders-intent/

[murphthesurf3]

01:28 AM on 02/24/2010

Specter and a number of his fellow Senators, and colleagues in the House are facing very tought reelection campaigns. I think they have to the conclusion that they must emerge as Crusaders for the principles, programs and promises by the Democrats in the election of 2008. The current political climate makes working with the opposition party very difficult. SO, RECONCILIATION HAS EMERGED AS THE ONLY WAY TO MOVE GOVERNMENT FORWARD. The GOP is now screaming that such an effort is contrary to history and practice. NOT SO. NOT SO.

George Bush was inaugurated on January 21, 2001.

On March 26, 2001 the GOP passed a $1.9 trillion tax cut. THAT IS THREE MONTHS AFTER HIS ANAUGURATION. They passed it using RECONCILIATION.

A bill twice the size of the health care proposal passed with reconciliation. THAT WAS THE FIRST OF FIVE USES OF RECONCILATION.

The GOP Congress under Mr. Bush passed the following additional reconciliation measures:
– The 2003 Bush Tax Cuts [HR 2, 3/23/03]
– The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (Pub.L. 108-173, 117 Stat. 2066, also called Medicare Modernization Act or MMA)
– Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 [HR 4297, 5/11/06]
– The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 [H. Con Res. 95, 12/21/05]

Estimated cost in lost revenue, expenditure and in debt interest:
$8.7 TRILLION.

Given that Health Care is a Bargain.

[Mabo]

06:04 PM on 02/24/2010

Reconciliation is supposed to be used for budgetary issues...not legislation. The Democrats decried this in 2005 and now they are doing EXACTLY what they stood so vehemently against.

Watch this...if you can stomach it...

http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-dems-in-2005-51-vote-nuclear-option-is-arrogant-power-grab-against-the-founders-intent/

THEIR words...THEIR outrage...THEIR stand...THEIR hypocrisy.

If it isn't right for the Republicans...it isn't right for the Democrats. Shame on them...

[cal700]

04:57 PM on 02/03/2010

The statement by Specter is just a hint on the direction the the Dems are going, and the leaks from the hill is another indicator.

I see HC reform in the near future, Obama went to the GOP Q&A just to give them one more opportunity to work with the Dems. This is wishful thinking, and makes sense, but the GOP has dug themselves such a deep hole with all the negative propaganda, it would be political suicide for anyone in the GOP to vote yes on any current bills. That would be like admitting that the GOP was wrong, no matter what consessions they recieve, the GOP base will view it as selling out to the Dems.

[eriand2]

04:40 PM on 02/03/2010

Dear Dems in the House,
On Reconciliation...if you are counting on the silly "pledge letter" that Nancy is supposed to get from Reid with 52 Dem senators pledging to enact all your socialistic pipe dreams, after you pass the senate version for obama to sign . . . you can't count on that silly "pledge letter" . . . here is why you can't:
Guess what...we've found a loophole in your budget ploy. The loophole in the budget reconciliation process will allow us to offer an indefinite number of amendments. Experts on Senate procedural rules, from both parties, note that filibuster by amendments (not debate) is possible. While reconciliation rules limit debate to 20 hours, senators lack similar constraints on amendments and will continue offering them until 60 members agree to cut the process off ( senators do have a life). Oh...yes...you will say there may be ways that Reid can stop this or maybe the Parliamentarian could make a ruling....but you don't get it...you see you will have already voted on the bill you don't want....Nancy and Reid will have played you like a fiddle....so you must ask yourself if you can really count on the silly "pledge letter". Have a nice day.

[ccfhc]

03:32 PM on 02/02/2010

Good for Specter. This is just what is needed, a voice of sanity and a leader.

To add your voice to the mix, give your House representative a call. It's a very quick process and is like voting 100 times at once. Name and numbers and more at http://callforhealthcare.blogspot.com/.

[cluesearch]

03:22 PM on 02/02/2010

Duh!!! Why does it take a former repub to pull the heads out of the collective behinds of the Senate Dems? Get on with it already.

[PeterGrfx]

01:49 PM on 02/02/2010

Just remember, faint-hearted Democrats, when the GOP passed the Bush-sponsored drug benefit addition to Medicare, the proposal had only 19% support in public opinion polls. They rammed it through by keeping the vote in the House open long enough to arm-twist recalcitrant conservatives into changing their votes.

The benefits of this proposal, though not as much as I'd like, will win the support of the American people - certainly from the 30 million who will have health insurance they don't have now - in the long run, even if it means you lose the 2010 elections. If you're going to lose anyway (because you already voted for healthcare reform on the last go-round), don't run scared, do the right thing while you still have a majority. So pass the Senate bill and add whatever improvements are needed afterward to get 50 votes (plus VP Biden's vote) to pass the Senate through reconciliation. Some will pass, some won't, but get it done!

[windup]

01:35 PM on 02/02/2010

Call your rep and tell them to sign on to the petition being circulated in the House for a public option to be passed using reconciliation. 92 House members have already signed. You can check to see if your has by going to www.boldprogressives.org.

[Rastaman1967]

01:16 PM on 02/02/2010

The POTUS made a comment in the SOTU, that its time for for both houses and parties to show leadership for the American People. Well, 70+ percent of the American people want healthcare reform. The Dems has the ball and they have committed too many fouls up to this point. They need to move forward and get this done now. So many of us have been saying what Spector is now saying, we would have saved 6 months of un-necessary debate and listening to the republican opposition.

By the way, if the Dems are smart, they would get the strongest bill pass with reconcilliation. Don't wait to do it folks.

[Scentedflower]

01:05 PM on 02/02/2010

Even the bill meets the purity test, goo-ps won't vote .Why wait?
Add this bill to the budget bill as a appendix to reduce the deficit and pass both with 51 good men & women who truly care for the country.

[WeCanDoMore]

12:58 PM on 02/02/2010

Dems really need to show gumption, it's b@lls to the wall time. It's now or never. They are stealing our country with their conservative block. They must have some kind of underground alternative govt. going on. They are just too in lock step with each other not to. I'll bet Ch3n3y is chief PooBah. Oh to shed some sunshine on their secretive leaders.

[StopMakingSense2]

12:01 PM on 02/02/2010

How do you reconcile with the unreconsilable? The repugs will not vote for anything only against. They can't be reasoned with so just ram it through and listen to them cry..

[WeCanDoMore]

12:48 PM on 02/02/2010

YES YES YES

[Sloane7]

11:48 AM on 02/02/2010

All Republicans that think Reconciliation will be the end of Democrats in both Houses should fully support the use of Reconciliation to pass health care.

[GoldsteinD]

12:19 PM on 02/02/2010

not falling for that. the cat would be out of the bag by then

[Sloane7]

12:31 PM on 02/02/2010

Not "falling for that"? It's not a trick, you think by using Reconciliation it will be the end of the Democrats. Never mind that Obstructionists have done it many times. So, let's just see how dangerous reconciliation will be to Democrats. I think it's worth the bet.

You teabaggers love to say "yeah, just watch what happens if you do that, you do it at your own peril!!!" I say, yes, let's do it and let the teabaggers march and carry their hate signs.

[Sloane7]

11:45 AM on 02/02/2010

It's like an echo chamber - everyone says "reconciliation" so how much longer, just do it.

[dizmo4]

11:39 AM on 02/02/2010

The problem is that Reid, Durbin, Bacus, Conrad need to agree, and i highly doubt they'll agree.

Reid might but he's shown no willingness to move forward this way before. I don't have much hope he'll use reconciliation now. Bacus, as chairman of the Finance Committee would have jurisdiction over anything done through reconciliation so he'd have to be placated ( which means Conrad and Lincoln would need to be placated to get this through the committee).

The excise tax was something Bacus came up with so whats the likely hood he'd drop that? The best way to do this would be to somehow bypass the Finance committee altogether and let the full Senate vote. Not sure if they can happen....anyone know?