Senator Reid: Reconciliation Process Will Be Used To Pass Health Care Within 60 Days

For those who have tried to kill health care reform for the past year…..take this!

I have preached, pleaded, and prodded for the Democratic majority in the Senate to use reconciliation as the means to pass health care reform.  After all the United States Senate does not need 60 votes to pass the health bill, they need a simple majority. The 60-vote filibuster number is one that has hampered the political process, and altered the landscape in Washington to the point where nothing can be done.  The health care debate throughout 2009 is ample proof of that.  The people want Congress to work and get things done!

So it is mighty pleasing to me, and the many millions around the nation to hear that Democratic  Majority Leader Harry Reid will use the reconciliation process, just as the Republicans have in the past, to pass major legislation.  In this case it will be the health care reform bill.  I am damn pleased, but still miffed that it has taken this long and used this amount of political capital to do the right thing.

The majority leader said that while Democrats have a number of options, they would likely use the budget reconciliation process to pass a series of fixes to the first healthcare bill passed by the Senate in November. These changes are needed to secure votes for passage of that original Senate bill in the House.

“We’ll do a relatively small bill to take care of what we’ve already done,” Reid said, affirming that Democrats would use the reconciliation process. “We’re going to have that done in the next 60 days.”

The move would allow Democrats to essentially go it alone on health reform, especially after losing their filibuter-proof majority in the Senate after Sen. Scott Brown’s (R) special election victory in Massachusetts.