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

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 under a simple majority vote would be amendments that fit easily within the reconciliation rules, Dionne notes in the Washington Post.

For an example of something being rammed through the Senate, angry Republicans like Orrin Hatch should look to the 2003 dividends tax cut, which only won 50 votes and required Dick Cheney to break the tie. The Republicans seem to be focusing on process instead of the substance of health care now that President Obama is finally displaying determination akin to that which enabled LBJ to get civil rights legislation through, Dionne writes.
(More health care reform stories.)