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Gregg: Democrats Trying To 'Roll The Minority' On Health Reform

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), ranking member on the Budget Committee, has an interesting position on the question of passing legislation through the budget reconciliation process. That is to say, he unequivocally opposes the procedure in all circumstances (unless those circumstances involve Republican agenda items like tax cuts). We've tracked his swings here pretty thoroughly, and noticed that he was at it again today on Fox News. Watch:

There are at least a few problems with this, but the biggest are that: a). Democrats aren't proposing nationalization of the health care system; b). reconciliation bills require 51 votes for passage, so they don't "roll the minority" so much as circumvent the filibuster and thereby restore something called "majority rule"; and c). though reconciliation does limit debate to 20 hours, the Democrats say they won't resort to the tactic until October 15, giving Republicans nearly six months to debate health reform, and vote for a bipartisan bill.


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Bla bla bla. That's all I heard.

Listen, if these bozo's would have an honest debate about anything rather than misquoting studies I don't think reconciliation would be necessary but they've decided to play games with every issue it seems more often than not.

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Gregg has completed the transition from a reasonable moderate GOP voice during the Bush Admin. to a complete clown in just a few short months.

It's quite impressive, really.

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At least he was honest when he withdrew his willingness to serve in the Cabinet. Thank goodness he is NOT there.

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why doesn't someone at TPM call his office and ask why he's against reconciliation now but he had no problem with it when Republicans were in the majority?

seriously, he should have to explain himself on this.

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BINGO.

You can practically see the neon "Hypocrite" sign with the down arrow flashing above his head.

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Shrinking minority....

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Exactly.

You have to be a big enough minority to be relevant. You're down to 40 votes in the Senate - you get rolled.

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I almost prefer the deranged ravings that most of them spew 24/7 to all the pissing and moaning and whining and crying that's constantly streaming out of this guy's piehole. Guy needs to get a fresh towel and to lay off the Lifetime movies.

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Well, let's hope the Democrats have enough spine to push through some reform without requiring 60 votes in the Senate. Given their recent performances, though, I'm not very hopeful.

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