All the News That's Fit to be Tied

I have an axe to grind, but unlike the New York Times, I freely admit it.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Will Reconciliation Be Skipped Over?

It is being suggested in some corners that if the House signs the Senate bill the President may skip reconciliation and just sign it. Does the President think that members of the House are as stupid as he and his administration think the American people are? Is the promise of reconciliation being held out as a ruse to trick the House into signing first? He has already asked them to put their re-election at risk. If he skips reconciliation he gets credit for putting single-payer in motion and the members are still at-risk. House members will have to be extra careful to not shoot themselves in the foot on this one. The Democrats do not have the votes to pass it, but the arm-twisting and deal-making may pull enough together to get it through. If they sign it before the reconciliation bill is agreed to, the President only needs to add his signature to make it the law of the land. Doing so eliminates the possibility of failure in the Reconciliation process. For Obama it is just another broken promise. Failing to keep them hasn’t bothered him so far so what’s one more broken promise?