Reply #39: Budget items are what the VP's Instruction says are budget items - you haven't disproven that

[leveymg]

Yes, no doubt there are going be lots of Objections, but the fact remains that unless 60 Senators agree that an item is "extraneous" under the Byrd rule, the item will be referred to committee for reconciliation with the House Bill. There's a lot of elastic meaning about what's a budget item, and what isn't, and the VP has a lot of room to craft the Bill he wants.

What you're talking about is capitulating to those who put together the current Senate Bill that is unacceptable. If you are indeed correct, and there aren't 51 votes in the Senate to change that Bill, then HCR is dead. If there aren't 51 votes to substantially change the Bill, what's the point of doing an uncontested budget reconciliation, unless you're going to accept the appropriations in the Senate Bill unchanged?

If the House goes ahead and passes that Bill with no binding commitment for specific changes, then the Democratic majority is dead. By my lights, I'd rather sustain the majority and try again than to swallow a poison pill.