Reconciliation: An Easier Sell Than It's Made Out to Be?

Posted by Digby, Hullabaloo at 6:30 AM on September 23, 2009.

Here's a rather sobering article on the perils of using the reconciliation process by Brian Beutler. It's a complicated undertaking that has some institutional road blocks which make it a difficult undertaking. Aside from the technical difficulties we've all discussed, he also reports that the Senate poohbahs are resistant because they will see their fiefdoms threatened. He writes:

Why is there such hesitancy in the Senate to go all the way in reconciliation? Because if the majority party begins passing whatever it wants in reconciliation bills, it would significantly undermine the power of Senate elders.

Schmitt says, "If reconciliation became a free-for-all, it's not just the minority party that would be cut out, the institutional prerogatives of most of the committees other than Budget and Finance would be drastically reduced, especially Appropriations. That's why, political will or not, there are more than enough Dems who aren't willing to blow open the process, for institutional reasons."

What if the Democrats tried anyhow? Well Republicans could become even more obstructive than they already are. With appropriations bills coming up, Republican delays could all but shut down the government. And though the GOP would be taking a huge political risk by going that route, some Democrats aren't willing to put the country through something that traumatic.

So, they don't want to endanger their prerogatives and are afraid that it will be too traumatic for the country if the Republicans hold their breath and turn blue on the Senate floor. That's some inspiring leadership there.

I guess I'm a little bit surprised then to see Beutler characterize liberals as being somehow mistaken in believing that failure to use reconciliation, if necessary, is a capitulation to Republican and industry pressure. It seems to me, by his own reporting, that the liberals are at least partially right in that assessment and now have an even greater reason to believe that these people are sell-outs than before: they are evidently willing to forgo serious health care reform in order to protect their political turf.

His report explains perfectly why liberals should be angry that the Senate is reconciliation to pass decent health care reform, so I wouldn't be too hopeful about this:

[T]he task for Barack Obama and Harry Reid and the rest is to convince their already frustrated base that they're not caving to GOP and industry pressure. They have a lot of material to work with, but so far, it's proving to be a hard sell.

Tagged as: senate, obama, barack obama, harry reid, reconciliation

Digby is the proprietor of Hullabaloo.