I truly feel that Republicans’ ideas on health care reform are the best route to take, but I cannot support their recent efforts to stall Democratic reform. Democrats in Congress are having trouble passing a bill as a result of Republicans’ efforts to scuttle any of the reform legislation currently before Congress. However, disagreeing with a piece of legislation is entirely different from acting like complete phonies.
Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander is criticizing the “reconciliation process” that some Democrats are considering to try to pass a health care bill. Let me describe what reconciliation is before I explain why it’s political suicide to criticize it.
Reconciliation is a legislative process the Senate uses to allow consideration of a budget bill without the threat of filibuster. The process only requires a simple-majority (51 votes) rather than a super-majority (60 votes). This poses a great threat to the Republican minority. So, it’s no surprise that Sen. Alexander might be tempted to call the process a “political kamikaze mission.”
What’s hypocritical about his statement is that he supported four bills that were passed through reconciliation while Republicans held the majority. It’s remarkable that he is still in office after attempting so many “kamikaze missions.”
Next, former presidential candidate John McCain is just as two-faced as the next Republican senator. He recently proposed an amendment that would restrict the Senate from being able to use reconciliation for bills involving entitlements (i.e., Medicare and Social Security). This would obviously restrict the Senate from passing any bill through reconciliation that involves the “public option.” Really? Did you think we’d forget about the nine reconciliation bills you voted for during your time in the Senate, four of which included cuts in Medicare? How desperate must you be to contradict your own voting record?
Sen. Orrin Hatch, of Utah, is the last culprit of this blatant hypocrisy. In a recent op-ed in the Washington Post, Hatch wrote: “The use of reconciliation would threaten our system of checks and balances, corrode the legislative process, degrade our system of government and damage the prospects of bipartisanship.” Oddly enough, Mr. Hatch voted for reconciliation bills in 1989, 1995, 1996, 1997 (twice), 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005 (twice) and 2007.
By those standards, Sen. Hatch has “degraded our system of government” 12 times throughout his career in Congress. It’s strange how something only “threatens our system of checks and balances” when it doesn’t support your own political agenda.
Did these Republicans forget their own voting record? Of course not. They all understand their disingenuous statements, but don’t care about the consequences that their statements could bring. How’s this for a consequence: Republicans fail to gain majority in Congress and lose the presidency in 2012. Republicans need to get their act together if they want to win over the American people.
In 2003, Republicans passed the Bush tax cuts through reconciliation. Oh, it’s strange how politicians forget so easily …
