Sen. Sanders: If Lieberman filibusters health reform, force it through

Source: The Raw Story

Facing the threat of a filibuster by Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CN) over the public option remaining in Democrats' health reform bill, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) does not seem gravely concerned.

Should Lieberman try to prevent the bill from coming to a vote, "there are other ways that we have to proceed," Sanders told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Monday. "I would strongly support those other ways."

Sanders was referring to budget reconciliation, a bureaucratic tactic that has been used repeatedly to push through Congress controversial measures that could not acquire a super-majority of 60 or more votes. Under reconciliation, a measure only needs a simple majority of 50 votes to pass.

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/sen-sanders-use-reconciliation/

...but they won't dare do it until they pass reform.

The man is a true progressive that actually knows how to get things done, and knows how important it is TO get things done. This guy should be our hero instead of some of the grandstanders that DU typically adores.

with it's use.

link:

Is it appropriate for Obama to push Congress to use reconciliation? Congress created reconciliation in 1974 to deal narrowly with changes in government revenue streams, like a tax increase one year to offset increased spending on Medicare. An unprecedented federal program to limit carbon emissions would not seem in that spirit.

The counter-argument is that every president since Ronald Reagan has used reconciliation one time or another for everything from deficit reduction to renewing a student loan program. Reagan even used it in 1981 to pass his historic tax cuts for the rich, arguably the defining legacy of his presidency.

http://understandinggov.org/2009/03/18/will-obama-do-budget-reconciliation-what-is-budget-reconciliation/

JUST REMEMBER TO REMIND THE PUBLIC WHAT IT WAS USED FOR AND BY WHOM IN THE PAST!

And here's the reason why reconciliation will work, and why any health care bill, even if half-brain-damaged, will work.

Because a successfully passed bill creates momentum. Which means a few months or years down the road, if the bill, now law, has problems, there will legislation to fix it.

If the bill is forced through with reconciliation, yes, it will be made into swiss cheese by the Byrd rule. But down the road, those holes will be patched.

Besides, there's always the strategy of chopping the bill into two bills - one with the uncontroversial stuff, stuff that won't meet the Byrd Rule test, and stuff that can be passed with 60 votes (such as bans on preexisting conditions and rescissions - I dare you to filibuster that, motherfuckers!), and the reconciliation bill with the public option and money stuff that can't get 60 votes, but can make it through the Byrd rule.