Playing a “Trick” on the American People: Reconciliation and Democrats’ Government Takeover of Health Care
“I’ve never passed a single bill worth talking about that didn’t have as a lead co-sponsor a Republican. And I don’t know of a single piece of legislation that’s ever been adopted here that didn’t have a Republican and a Democrat in the lead. That’s because we need to sit down and work with each other. The rules of this institution have required that – that’s why we exist.”
— Senator Dodd, Senate floor speech on 51-vote majority rule, May 23, 2005[i]
In a speech on health care today, President Obama endorsed passage of comprehensive health care legislation through a partisan process known as reconciliation. While the President may attempt to portray his approach as a fair process, the facts show this process to be a partisan attempt to pass a health plan overwhelmingly rejected by the American people:
Reconciliation Has Been a Largely Bipartisan Process
- An RPC analysis of 22 reconciliation measures passed since 1980—19 measures enacted into law and three vetoed—found that most reconciliation bills have followed a bipartisan path.
- The 19 reconciliation bills enacted into law were passed with an average of 68 Senate votes and 286 House votes—strong bipartisan majorities by any definition. In fact, three of the 19 reconciliation bills were passed by voice vote in either the House or the Senate.[ii]
- The 22 reconciliation bills considered in both chambers were passed with an average of 18 minority-party votes in the Senate and 72 votes from the minority in the House.[iii]
Reconciliation Has Never Been Used Solely for Health Care Legislation
- While Democrats have argued that other health-related programs have been included in budget reconciliation bills, that argument obscures the fact that health provisions have comprised portions of past reconciliation bills, rather than the entirety of them.
- For instance, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), created in 1997, constituted only 19 pages of the 537-page Balanced Budget Act (P.L. 105-33). And the Congressional Budget Office score of the legislation notes that the bill spent only $20 billion on SCHIP while achieving $160 billion—eight times that amount—in gross deficit savings.[iv] Moreover, the Balanced Budget Act itself was passed on strong bipartisan votes of 346-85 in the House and 85-15 in the Senate—meaning the 60-vote filibuster threshold was never an issue.[v]
- Likewise, provisions providing COBRA continuation health insurance coverage in 1986 and reforming welfare in 1996 each received 78 Senate votes, with 38 Democrats supporting the majority Republicans in 1986 and 25 Democrats in 1996.[vi]
- The largest health care bill in the past 40 years was NOT passed through reconciliation. When Republicans created the Medicare Part D program in 2003, the Medicare Modernization Act (P.L. 108-173) proceeded through regular order, and 12 Senate Democrats supported its passage.[vii]
Democrats Using “Tricks” to Subvert the Will of the People
- Democrats themselves have outlined the procedural chicanery necessary to pass a health care bill under reconciliation; Speaker Pelosi’s chief health advisor was recently quoted as saying “there’s a trick” involved in passing health legislation under the reconciliation procedures.[viii]
- The only reconciliation bills enacted into law on straight party-line votes were the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171) and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-66). The latter bill, passed by a Democratic Congress and President, contained the largest tax increase in American history—more than $240 billion over five years.[ix]
- Having lost Congress in 1994 after using a partisan reconciliation process to pass the largest tax increase in American history, Democrats are now attempting to jam through via reconciliation health legislation containing at least $518.5 billion in additional tax increases in the next decade.[x]
- The American people have stated repeatedly they do not want Democrats to pass their massive health care bill—a message delivered resoundingly in town hall meetings across the country; in elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts; and in poll after poll. Last week, a CNN poll found nearly three in four Americans want Congress to either start over (48%) or stop working on health care entirely (25%); “nearly 4 in 10 Democrats say…Congress should start from scratch.”[xi]
The voters of Massachusetts did not approve of Democrats’ backroom dealing on health care, and instead decided to elect Republican Scott Brown. Many may therefore view the latest proposed “trick” by Democrats in Congress as yet another attempt to defy the will of the voters in order to enact an unpopular government takeover of health care.
[i] Video available at http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-dems-in-2005-51-vote-nuclear-option-is-arrogant-power-grab-against-the-founders-intent/.
[ii] RPC vote analysis of reconciliation bills included in 2008 Congressional Research Service report, http://www.crs.gov/Pages/Reports.aspx?ProdCode=RL30458.
[iii] Ibid. Vote analysis for majority party support excludes legislation passed by unanimous consent or voice votes.
[iv] Congressional Budget Office, score of Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-33), http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/0xx/doc22/summary.pdf.
[v] House roll call vote 345 of 1997; Senate record vote 209 of 1997.
[vi] Senate record votes 379 of 1985 and 262 of 1996.
[vii] Senate record votes 458 and 459 of 2003.
[viii] Quoted in “Pelosi Aide Outlines Health Care Endgame,” CongressDaily PM, February 9, 2009, http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/cd_20100209_8456.php.
[ix] Joint Committee on Taxation analysis of conference report to accompany H.R. 2264 (103rd Congress), August 4, 1993, http://jct.gov/publications.html?func=startdown&id=2907.
[x] Figures based on Congressional Budget Office and JCT analyses of H.R. 3590 as passed by the Senate. President Obama has proposed additional tax increases to fund yet more government health care spending as part of his own health proposal.
[xi] “CNN Poll: Health Care Provisions Popular but Overall Bills Unpopular,” February 24, 2009, http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/24/cnn-poll-health-care-provisions-popular-but-overall-bills-unpopular/?fbid=8ZyhGa7YYHi.