Health care: Should Democrats go it alone?

The Democrats have the option of using the “budget reconciliation” procedure to pass health-care legislation without Republican support.

In trying to reform the nation’s broken health-care system, said Katrina vanden Heuvel in TheNation.com, President Obama made one fundamental mistake: He asked for good-faith Republican participation. Obviously, a bipartisan bill would be preferable. But with the GOP ranting about White House–imposed “death panels,” and “fear mongering about government takeovers and socialism,” it’s clear it will use any tactic—no matter how false or inflammatory—to deal a popular Democratic president his first major defeat. With no votes or cooperation from the GOP, Obama and the Democrats have one realistic option, said The New York Times in an editorial. Ted Kennedy’s death leaves them one vote short of the 60 they need to override a Republican filibuster. So Democrats have to rely on a secret weapon called “budget reconciliation.” This “arcane parliamentary tactic” would allow any health program to pass with a simple majority of 51 votes.

Bad idea, said former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole in The Washington Post. Democrats would come to regret using procedural trickery to ram through historic and monumentally expensive legislation revamping the nation’s health-care system. Health-care reform is in trouble because Obama let Congress take control of it, issuing five different bills with complicated and conflicting provisions. Right now, no one knows what health-care reform would actually look like. To save it, Obama should start afresh—combing through the various options, and introducing his version of reform in both houses. Once Obama personally takes charge, public support for reform will grow, “the debate will narrow, and bipartisan bargaining can begin.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up