Reconciliation Roadblock? Parliamentarian May Derail Preferred Dem Timeline

Oh, no, not a sternly worded letter. Surely Mitchie will crumble.

Someone will try to make this a tempest in a teapot.
Lemme guess... that 'someone' would most likely be Mitchie McConnell.

Popcorn, please... with extra butter ;-))

I'm getting a little sick and tired of these unelected officials running the show.

Total BS - GOP scare tactic.

Can get around this by the "Self-Executing Rule" :

"Under this scenario, the Senate bill would be automatically attached to the reconciliation package, if the House passes reconciliation. In other words, Bill A would just become part of Bill B if the House passes Bill B, and the Senate could then vote on a reconciliation package before sending it to the president. This allows House members to approve the broader measure without actually voting on it.

The same aides who confirmed this process was under discussion quickly noted that party leaders have not yet arrived at a final decision, so it's far from a done deal -- a point House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) made repeatedly Tuesday during his weekly exchange with reporters.

This would allow them to deal with the Senate bill without forcing their members to go on record in support of unpopular items, like the now-infamous Cornhusker Kickback or the so-called Louisiana Purchase, that could be used against them on the campaign trail in the fall.

According to industry lobbyists, the House may take the additional step of further amending the rule to guard against another nightmare scenario -- the Senate's failure to enact a package of fixes through the now-familiar reconciliation process. House leaders could add a caveat to the rule that the Senate bill can only be signed into law if the Senate also passes the fixes. "

If senior GOP aides said it, it must be true. If they think the bill sucks so bad and the Dems will get clobbered for passing crappy legislation, they should allow an upperdown vote, vote against it, and campaign on it in November... right?

McConnell is only trying to save the Democrats from going down in flames for passing such a God awful bill that he keeps saying the people don't want. I never realized he was such a caring person. Thank you Mitch.

"Assuming the ruling is made official, it could be overturned by the Senate chair--likely Vice President Joe Biden--but there's little-to-no precedent for such a maneuver"

- but there IS strong constitutional precedent against "legislative entrenchment" (the prohibition against changing the rule, in this case rule XXII.) This is also known as the "constitutional," or "Nuclear" option.

And it could (and probably should) have been used to get an even better bill - changes with NO Budgetary requirement as exists in the Reconciliation process, i.e., HR676 as the Public Option. (just don't tell Bart Stupak. ;)

"Dirty pool," Repugs would claim? Sure.
But it should be pointed out that this "Nuclear Option" was THEIR invention, even though it was never really used except as a threat. Ya still gotta love the irony....

There's a difference though. When they threatened the Dem minority with it, the Dems hadn't "cried wolf too many times" by already employing MAXIMUM parliamentary obstructionism, as today's Repugs have over the past year. Ao the Dems were able to threaten MAXIMUM obstructionism if they tried it (and they didn't. But now, we should.)

What the Republicans claim to have been told is contradicted by a written report to Congress prepared last year by the Congressional Research Service. See The Budget Reconciliation Process:
The Senate's "Byrd Rule", http://budget.house.gov/crs-reports/RL30862.pdf, p. 4-5:

"The Byrd rule is a relatively complex rule that applies to two types of reconciliation measures considered pursuant to Section 310 of the CBA of 1974 -- reconciliation bills and reconciliation resolutions. (A reconciliation resolution could be used to make changes in legislation that had passed the House and Senate but had not yet been enrolled and sent to the President. The practice of the House and Senate has been to consider only reconciliation bills.)"