budget reconcilation

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Senate Launches 'Vote-a-Rama' on $3.5T Budget Blueprint

Amendment against defunding police passes 99-0

(Newser) - Democrats pushed their expansive $3.5 trillion framework for bolstering family services, health, and environment programs toward Senate passage Tuesday, as Republicans unleashed an avalanche of amendments aimed at making their rivals pay a price in next year’s elections. Congressional approval of the budget resolution, which seems assured, would...

Lone Dem Likely Has Doomed Plans to Dodge Filibuster

Joe Manchin says reconciliation process will cause 'drastic swings in federal policymaking'

(Newser) - With the Senate split 50-50, the success of Democrats' legislation depends on having a unified caucus—and one member may have dashed hopes of getting around the filibuster another time this year. In a Washington Post op-ed, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia criticizes the use of the budget reconciliation...

New Senate Rule Could Be a Game-Changer

Reconciliation process can be used multiple times

(Newser) - A ruling on the budget reconciliation rules from the Senate parliamentarian may not sound like a particularly exciting development—but it could have massive implications for the future of President Biden's agenda. Elizabeth MacDonough's Monday night ruling could be a game-changer because it gives Senate Majority Leader Chuck...

Biden Faces Big Decision Early With Congress
Biden Faces
an 'Early Test'
in Congress
the rundown
Jan 26, 2021 9:15 AM CST

Biden Faces an 'Early Test' in Congress

Should he work on compromise for COVID relief or push it through with a parliamentary maneuver?

(Newser) - The Senate has been in a kind of legislative limbo since the election, but that ended Monday night when Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer ended a stalemate on how to move forward. Now comes the task of actually passing legislation, including a COVID relief measure with its accompanying relief checks...

The Fate of ObamaCare: What Lies Ahead
GOP May Use 'Arcane' Process
to Dismantle ObamaCare
THE RUNDOWN
Jan 5, 2017 6:42 AM CST

GOP May Use 'Arcane' Process to Dismantle ObamaCare

Budget reconciliation could expedite ACA's demise—but what comes next?

(Newser) - With the GOP now running Congress and Donald Trump looking for a full repeal on his first day in office, ObamaCare appears to be in dire straits, and the New York Times explains how Republicans could use a process called budget reconciliation to streamline its dismantling. Although the rewriting...

Reid Casts Wrong Vote, Again
 Reid Casts Wrong Vote, Again 
Mar 26, 2010 5:14 AM CDT

Reid Casts Wrong Vote, Again

He voted against reconciliation before correcting himself

(Newser) - Harry Reid is apparently good at lining up votes but not so much at actually casting them. The majority leader set off laughter in the Senate chamber yesterday when he mistakenly voted "no" on the reconciliation bill. He quickly realized his mistake and changed to yes. Reid made the...

Senate Approves Health Care Fixes

Reconciliation measure now goes back to the House

(Newser) - Democrats muscled legislation through the Senate today reshaping parts of the new health care overhaul law, sending it back to the House for what is expected to be final congressional approval this evening. With Joe Biden presiding in case his vote was needed to break a tie, the Senate approved...

Reconciliation Will Make Senate Less Human
 Reconciliation Will Make Senate Less Human
DAVID BROOKS
Mar 16, 2010 4:50 AM CDT

Reconciliation Will Make Senate Less Human

Partisan reconciliation will turn Senate into House, predicts David Brooks

(Newser) - Using reconciliation to push health care through will turn the Senate into a crude, partisan arena much like the House, argues David Brooks. Once a place where alliances were formed between individual lawmakers, the Senate used to reflect the human sympathy seen in one-on-one relationships; a party-line vote will reduce...

Pelosi: Health Bill Horse Trading Is Over

Democratic leaders play hardball ahead of House vote

(Newser) - The store is closed for House Democrats looking for sweeteners to sway them into voting for the health bill, Nancy Pelosi warned yesterday. Pelosi stressed that she won't be making any changes to the final legislation for the sake of holdouts, meaning that there will be no more "Cornhusker...

Senate Could Kill Obama's Student Loan Fix

Private lenders have friends in the upper chamber of Congress

(Newser) - House Democrats are trying to find a way to pass Barack Obama’s student loan reform plan, but they may be powerless in the face of the Senate's intent to kill it. Because the Senate is full of private lending allies willing to filibuster the bill, Democrats had hoped to...

Forget Polls, Mr. President, Ram Through Health Bill

Obama needs to show leadership by using reconciliation

(Newser) - President Obama needs to show some leadership by making sure the health bill passes despite its unpopularity, writes Richard Cohen. Polls show support for reform is falling, but that's because its benefits are either not immediate nor easily communicated via TV newsbites, Cohen writes in the Washington Post . The bill...

Post-Partisan? Obamacare Push Proves the Lie
Post-Partisan? Obamacare
Push Proves the Lie
charles krauthammer
Mar 5, 2010 9:21 AM CST

Post-Partisan? Obamacare Push Proves the Lie

Health care reform is too big for a party-line vote

(Newser) - Barack Obama came to office on the promise of a post-partisan world, but he's about to jam through a monumental health care bill in the most partisan way imaginable, writes Charles Krauthammer. The president insists reform is popular because people support individual items in principle. Of course they do, writes...

GOP Vows to Stall Health Care Vote

'We're going to scrub the bill,' McConnell promises

(Newser) - Democrats want to get the health care bill passed by Easter, but that could be impossible given the enormous procedural complexity of the task—and the unyielding Republican opposition. Though the reconciliation process allows the Senate to pass the bill with a simple majority, it still gives Republicans plenty of...

Don't Lie, GOP: Dems Aren't Ramming Through Health Bill

'It's good to see Obama displaying LBJ's wiles'

(Newser) - The Republicans' claim that the Democrats are using reconciliation to ram through a health care bill is a flat-out lie at worst and stunning hypocrisy at best, writes E.J. Dionne Jr. The health-care bill has already passed the Senate with 60 votes, and the only thing that would pass...

Obama to Congress: Vote Health Care 'Up or Down'

Tells Senate to go for 'up or down vote'

(Newser) - Barack Obama gave Congress its marching orders today, telling them to hold a final vote on health care reform within the next few weeks. He essentially told the Senate to pass the bill via reconciliation, though he didn’t use the term, instead demanding an “up or down vote,...

Obama Plans Easter Resurrection for Health Care

But master plan meets resistance as House afraid to vote first

(Newser) - The health care reform bill was, in a sense, born on Christmas Eve, and now Barack Obama’s hoping to resurrect it just in time for Easter, writes John Dickerson. According to the plan Obama sent congressional leadership, the Senate would vote through changes to its bill using reconciliation, holding...

Dems Can Pass Health Care Bill Alone: Obama Aide

Nancy-Ann DeParle says Dems will likely use reconciliation to pass bill

(Newser) - Democrats will have the votes to pass health care reform, but they’re probably going to use reconciliation to do it, Nancy-Ann DeParle said yesterday. Obama seems to be leaning toward asking the House to pass a version of the Senate bill, then have the Senate appease House Dems by...

Obama Goes Big With Health Care Proposal
Obama Goes
Big With Health Care Proposal
Analysis
Feb 23, 2010 9:07 AM CST

Obama Goes Big With Health Care Proposal

White House thinks not passing major reform will hurt in November

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s $950 billion health care proposal yesterday defied expectations that he would scale back his ambitions now that Republicans have the votes to filibuster the bill in the Senate. The White House braintrust has decided to go big one last time, believing that there’s still a small...

Health Reform: It's 1994 All Over Again
 Health Reform: 
 It's 1994 All Over Again 
ANALYSIS
Feb 1, 2010 12:06 PM CST

Health Reform: It's 1994 All Over Again

Parallels to last time comprehensive legislation died are stark

(Newser) - Even a cursory look at Democrats’ activity on health care reform brings back clear memories of their 1994 failure to pass comprehensive legislation. For instance, write Carrie Budoff Brown and Chris Frates, “the same people who spent months arguing that reform had to be jammed through quickly” are now...

Dems May Split Health Plan Into 2 Bills to Skirt GOP

(Newser) - Here's the latest health care strategy gaining traction among Democrats: Pass two bills instead of one. The idea, as laid out by the Wall Street Journal, goes like this: Democrats would tuck most of the legislation's more controversial spending measures—maybe even a public insurance option—into a first bill...

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