Guess who thinks the Senate can go first?

Besides me, that is.

Yes, even though Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) continues to insist the House must pass the Senate health insurance industry reform bill before anyone would be allowed to consider the reconciliation fix, I still disagree with his reasons.

But who cares what some Cheeto-munching blogger says, right? What about the experts who wear suits and stuff?

Yeah, what about dressed-up expert? Like maybe former Senate parliamentarian Robert Dove?

Dove says the Dems' planned use of reconciliation is highly unusual. "I've never seen a two-bill strategy" where reconciliation is used to fix another piece of legislation, he says. "It's permissible, I've just never seen it."

Oh.

Well, OK then.

But does he just mean it's permissible to use reconciliation to fix another piece of legislation that's just passed? Well, no. Why would anyone need to check with a parliamentarian on that? Of course you can use reconciliation to fix legislation that's already passed. That's the way it normally works. The only question you'd need to ask a parliamentarian is if reconciliation can be used to fix pending legislation that hasn't passed yet. Otherwise it's not a "two-bill strategy." It's a one bill and then another bill strategy. Which is to say, no strategy at all.

So this looks to me like pretty much what I've been saying. The letter of the Budget Act says yes. I say yes. Now it looks like Dove says yes, too.

So... yes!

Article from Congress Matters read more here