And he knows it:
Obama sets stage for using budget maneuver to pass health reform
By Sam Youngman - 09/10/09 05:19 PM ET
President Barack Obama this week has been laying the foundation for Senate Democrats to use a controversial budget maneuver to pass healthcare reform.
By offering Republicans olive branches during his address to Congress on Wednesday, Obama has set up a win-win situation. If GOP lawmakers embrace compromise, a healthcare bill would pass Congress easily. But the more likely scenario is that Republicans will continue to oppose Obama’s plan, and the president later this fall will be able to note he tried to strike a deal with the GOP but could not.
That will set up a Democratic argument that Senate leaders have been forced to use a partisan budget tool known as reconciliation to pass a health bill through the Senate by a simple majority, instead of 60 votes. Under the budget plan they passed earlier this year, Democrats could invoke the reconciliation process on Oct. 15.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/58233-obama-sets-stage-for-using-budget-maneuver-to-pass-health-reformIf they go for the reconciliation route they will spoil themselves rotten. They will strike the just added language requiring proof of citizenship/legal status, they will laden it with lard, every horror story we have witnessed or imagined. They might as well make it a Christmas gift to themselves.
There are plenty of procedural rules we could invoke, i.e. not granting unanimous consent thus requiring the ENTIRE bill to be read everytime it is brought to the floor; but these are only stalling tactics. Senators can have each and every section reviewed and those that aren't budgetary in nature would be automatically stricken. Even then it sunsets automatically after 5 years. You better believe the dems will create something to end-run that provision.
Odds are if the dems have pissed away America's goodwill even with town halls then Johnny Sixpack may well be fuious with this stunt.
