Very Serious Heritage Foundation joins reconciliation lie parade

Hi.

Would you like to see exactly how fudging turns into a real, live lie?

Here you go:

With the dust settled on the health summit, it is clear that the president and his allies on Capitol Hill intend to plow forward with their sweeping proposal to overhaul the nation’s health sector. As the Los Angeles Times observed, it is also clear that "they will have to do it by themselves."

And there’s only one way they can "do it by themselves": an arcane budgetary procedure known as "reconciliation."

Will Democrats plow forward with their sweeping proposal?

Yes. How? By having the House eventually agree to pass the bill that's already passed the Senate. How did that bill pass the Senate? Under "regular order" and with 60 votes.

Will Democrats do it by themselves?

Yes. How? By passing the Senate bill in the House, likely with no Republican votes. How will they pass that bill? Under "regular order" and without resort to reconciliation.

Is reconciliation "arcane?" Not really. It's been used dozens of times in its 35 year history, and quite often by Republicans.

So what's the Heritage Foundation really talking about? They're talking about "plowing forward" with a narrowly-tailored, all budget-related second bill, which they'll pass under reconciliation. But Heritage doesn't differentiate between the two bills, because if they do, then the whole rest of the argument is shot.

You may have watched me go through the same, sad exercise on Twitter the other day, with former Bush White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto last week. Fratto's entire argument was premised on the confusion of the two bills: one big one with the "sweeping proposal" in it, which has already passed with 60 votes, and; one small one with "limited budget matters" in it, which will use reconciliation.

That's the entirety of the argument the Very Serious Heritage Foundation and former White House spokesman are making. You have to forget there are two different bills and two different procedures here. Instead, you should fear that... uh... they're being referred to in close proximity. Or something.

Article from Congress Matters read more here