Dems considering use of controversial legislative maneuver to ease health care reform through Congress

Senate Democrats are taking a close look at using a controversial legislative tactic that would make it much easier to push health care reform through Congress. Depending on your political views, “reconciliation” is either a useful tool to protect the measure from Republican filibuster or a heavy-handed partisan tactic.

Language being considered by the House would let lawmakers combine all health care reform matters, including coverage and the tax and spending cuts needed to pay for it, into one bill. In the Senate, if reconciliation is used, only a simple majority, 51 votes, would be needed for passage, rather than the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

Many people probably have never heard of reconciliation but it’s a legislative tool that has been around for more than 25 years. It is a fast-track process that was originally intended, in the early 1980s, to make it easier to move deficit-reduction measures through Congress. Despite the original intent, reconciliation has been used to advance presidential agendas, such as Bill Clinton’s budget plan or George W. Bush’s tax cuts, when the president’s party has had a majority in Congress.

Experts in the reconciliation process say it helps parties get their initiatives through Congress but it does so at great cost, namely long-term legislative divisiveness. Is it worth it? Only Democratic leaders (for now) know that for sure.