Hot Air » Blog Archive » Is reconciliation the biggest problem in ObamaCare push?

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Is reconciliation the biggest problem in ObamaCare push?: "Over the last few days, readers have sent a number of e-mails objecting to our focus on reconciliation as the big problem facing the opposition to ObamaCare. Reconciliation is just a ruse, they warn. The real danger is that the House will pass the Senate version of ObamaCare and that Barack Obama will sign it into law. The Senate doesn’t have to do anything at that point, except perhaps dodge the missiles tossed across the Capitol’s parking lot from their colleagues in the House after stiffing them on fixing their concerns.

That certainly has some truth to it. The House has had the option to do just that ever since the Senate passed its version in late December. The House can do that at any time during this session of Congress, which ends in December. They do not need to even put it through the committee process, but can bring it to the floor expeditiously — and Republicans have no way to stop it. If Nancy Pelosi ever decides to do that — presuming she can get the votes to pass it — Obama would surely sign the bill.

If that’s all it took, though, it would already have been done. The problem is that the Senate bill is unpopular among Democrats in the House, mainly for three reasons. First, the Senate stripped out the public option. Progressives have come to a grudging understanding that they’re not going to revive that. However, they’re not at all pleased with the so-called Cadillac tax funding mechanism in the Senate bill, primarily because it will hammer union workers who won big health-care benefits over the years. Finally, on the opposite end of the Democratic caucus, the abortion issue has made the Senate bill a bridge too far for at least a dozen Representatives who voted for the bill the first time — when it passed by only five votes."