Senate Democrats Consider Tactic to Push Through Government Health Plan (with a simple majority)

[steven johnson]

Source: NY Times

Senate Democrats said Sunday that they were fleshing out plans to pass health legislation, particularly the option of a new government-run insurance program, with a simple majority, instead of the 60 votes that would ordinarily be needed to overcome a filibuster.
After consulting experts in Senate rules and procedure, the Democrats said they were increasingly confident that they could legislate creation of a public plan in a way that would withstand challenges expected from Republicans.
Appearing Sunday on the NBC News program "Meet the Press," Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said a public insurance plan was "essential to getting the costs down, which is our No. 1 problem."
Proponents of a public plan say it would drive down costs because it would not have a profit motive and would have lower overhead costs and lower executive salaries than private insurance companies.
In Colorado on Aug. 15, President Obama said people had become "fixated" on the public plan option, which he described as "just one sliver" of efforts to overhaul the health care system.


Read more: Http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/health/policy/24health.html

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Now it's going to get nasty.

There is plenty of historical precedent of using it by both parties, including Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, who used it force through big tax cuts. 'Pretty much every major piece of budget legislation going back to April 1981, April '82, April 1990, April 1993, the 1990 act, the 2001 tax legislation, 1995 “Contract With America” agenda -- they were all done through reconciliation.

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