The Great Healthcare Robbery | FrontPage Magazine

The Great Healthcare Robbery | FrontPage Magazine: "“No one has talked about reconciliation,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared during last week’s health care summit. It was a lie shocking in its boldness.

Live on national television, the Democrats’ leader in the U.S. Senate told the nation that not a single person had discussed even the possibility of using the Senate’s budget reconciliation rules, which require a simple majority vote instead of 60, as needed under regular Senate rules, to pass President Obama’s health care reform plan. Yet, a week before, Reid himself had said publicly that reconciliation was an option for passing the plan, Politico.com reported. Of the Senate’s 59 Democrats, 23 had already signed a letter urging the president to pass the plan via reconciliation by the time Reid said “no one” was even talking about it. And of course, a week later, President Obama, as expected, urged Democrats to pass the bill through the reconciliation process if necessary.

In other words, the Democratic Party leadership in Washington hadn’t just talked about reconciliation. It was central to their strategy."