“RECONCILLIATION” AND TYRANNY

Democrats in Congress seem determined to pass the health care bill through the “reconciliation process” despite its obvious unpopularity with the people of America. Nancy Pelosi has said this week that Democrats “have set the stage” for the reconciliation process to go forward. Reconciliation is a procedure in Congress whereby legislation can be passed without the usual threat of a filibuster. Reconciliation was a measure designed by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to allow Congress and the Senate to avoid a filibuster and pass budget bills with a smaller group of “yes” votes. The technique has been used only on bills concerning budgets and deficit spending since its inception; and that was its intended purpose. If readers are interested in knowing what “reconciliation” is all about, they can refer to--http://tinyurl.com/y9xk668. Reconciliation has never been used to modify social legislation of the scale and cost of the present health care bill.

Here is how the Democrats in Congress intend to manipulate this health care bill through the reconciliation process. First, House Democrats would pass a series of “fixes” to the Senate bill. The Senate would then pass the House reconciliation bill, sending amendments to President Obama to a bill that did not exist, because it had not yet emerged from the House. The House would then retroactively pass the Senate bill, as is, and send it to the President for signature. Then the President would sign the Senate bill before he signs the reconciliation bill.

This whole process sounds like a bunch of legislative acrobatics in an attempt to pass legislation that is very unpopular with the American people. To me,it sounds like tyranny.

Nobody in their right mind believes that the government can supply health insurance to 38 million Americans and do it for free—actually decreasing the debt load of the government, as President Obama claims.