The Senate Republicans’ strategy on health care reform right now is warning House Democrats that they will do anything to derail a set of reconciliation votes. All 41 Republicans have already signed a letter saying that they will vote against any waiver of the Byrd rule, and are clearly working through every possible route to [...]

Democrats seem to have an unsolvable legislative problem on their hands. It does not seem that their current strategy of passing the Senate bill as is and then arranging some fixes through reconciliation will work. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and his anti-abortion gang want changes to the abortion language before voting on the bill, and Senate [...]

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) is demanding that the abortion language in health care reform be fixed before they pass the current comprehensive Senate health care bill in the House. In itself this is not an insane request given that once the bill passes, Stupak has no more leverage. With almost 300 House bills stalled in [...]

Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has a new op-ed in Politico calling for giving the public option a vote in the Senate. While he does not address the process dynamics, he leaves the impression that he is calling for an up-or-down vote on the public option as an amendment to the reconciliation bill or as a stand-alone [...]

Senate Democrats like Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) are strongly pushing the meme that Senate rules require House Democrats to first pass the Senate health care bill unchanged, then a reconciliation measure of “fixes,” and only then can Senate Democrats do anything.That clearly does not sit well with House Democrats, who are growing [...]

During Wednesday’s health care address, President Obama said that the American people deserve a final up-or-down vote on health care reform: So, no matter which approach you favor, I believe the United States Congress owes the American people a final vote on health care reform. We have debated this issue thoroughly, not just for the [...]

If (and that is a big if) Democrats move forward with health care reform using reconciliation, it is likely that there will eventual be an up-or-down vote on the public option. All it takes is one senator to offer a properly designed amendment – perhaps one of the 30 Senate Democrats who are on record saying they support an up-or-down vote on the public option. Maybe the American people will finally get to see who stands with the American people and which senators are working to protect the profits of the private insurance companies.

Ben Nelson (D-NE), living up to his role as the great defender of the health insurance industry, is now leading the fight against the new Health Insurance Rating Authority that Obama proposed as part of his health care reform package (PDF). From Politico: Nelson quietly urged Democratic leaders to reject Feinstein’s effort to include in [...]

Talk about bad timing. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin launched a campaign today to end the filibuster and restore the ability for a simple majority of senators to pass legislation. His efforts include an email to supporters directing them to sign a petition at fedupwiththefilibuster.com to stop the abuse of rules that prevent majority rule. [...]

There has been a lot of talk about using reconciliation lately. What is important is that reconciliation measures by law face only limited debate in the Senate, so, as a result, can’t be filibustered. Reconciliation measures can pass with a simple, Constitutional majority vote. Part of the what governs reconciliation is the Byrd rule. These [...]