Patterico's Pontifications

3/22/2010

Reconciliation Marches On

Filed under: Health Care — DRJ @ 9:38 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The Senate is considering the Reconciliation Bill and dealing with those pesky Republicans:

“After hearing arguments on both sides, [Senate parliamentarian Alan] Frumin said that Democratic plans to push back an excise tax on so-called Cadillac insurance plans until 2018 was within the purview of budget rules allowable under the filibuster-proof reconciliation process. The GOP had challenged the language on the grounds that it violated a 1974 budget law because of its impact on the Social Security statute, and was thus subject to a point of order that would doom the bill in the Senate.

Now Republicans say there are a series of other challenges they plan to levy against the bill in the coming days, and believe there is still a chance to knock out the Cadillac tax by arguing it violates the so-called Byrd rule, named after Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), which states that extraneous provisions not related to the budget can be stripped from reconciliation packages. Frumin has not yet ruled on that objection.”

The Parliamentarian’s ruling “leaves a big part of the reconciliation bill intact and makes the road for Democratic passage of the bill much smoother.” It also protects those big union health insurance plans from hefty tax hikes.

Democrats like to say Republicans are in bed with their richest constituents. What does that make Democrats and Unions?

— DRJ

22 Responses to “Reconciliation Marches On”

  1. What does that make Democrats and Unions?

    Liars, first and foremost.

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  2. “and believe there is still a chance to knock out the Cadillac tax by arguing it violates the so-called Byrd rule, named after Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), which states that extraneous provisions not related to the budget can be stripped from reconciliation packages. ”

    I have a hard time seeing how a revenue generating tax is “not related to the budget.” But more important than this, is the GOP really searching for ways to cut the revenue that this bill raises ?

    So the GOP wants to cut the revenue sources

    imdw (b40b74)

  3. “So the GOP wants to cut the revenue sources”

    That should have continued:

    or maybe they want to cut out the “fixes” to the cadillac tax? So do they want it to go up or down?

    imdw (b40b74)

  4. The Law for one is supposed to be the Law for all. There are not supposed to be exceptions for favored classes. Such a tenet is fundamental to a Free Society and contrarily, an anathema to the authoritarian.

    Save for the Thirty-Four, how easily and cheaply the path that the Democratic Party has taken.

    Our Republic is in for the fight of its Life.

    Pons Asinorum (35b979)

  5. Agreed EW. The only good thing out of this sordid affair is that the leadership of the Democratic Party is now exposed.

    Pons Asinorum (35b979)

  6. It’s often observed that the Boomers have been trying to recapture, again and again, that “spirit” they had in the 60s.

    I recalled the following quote, and it seemed particularly appropriate:

    [In the 60’s] there was madness in any direction, at any hour … You could
    strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever
    we were doing was `right’, that we were winning … And that, I think, was
    the handle — the sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil.
    Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would
    simply `prevail’. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We
    had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful
    wave …. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in
    Las Vegas and look West , and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see
    the high-water mark — the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

    – Hunter S. Thompson, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”

    Seems to me that they did manage to recapture it.

    And we’ve just seen the place where everyone is going to realize, sooner rather than later, that the #%&#%&%&@^# Boomer wave of mass, inexplicable idiocy has finally rolled back for the Last Fucking Time.

    IgotBupkis (79d71d)

  7. That Politico piece strikes me as being pretty poorly written. The GOP doesn’t seek to “knock out” the Cadillac tax, do they? It seems that what they want to guarantee is that the Cadillac tax is levied immediately and not deferred until 2018 or whenever the unions forced their Democrat lackeys to push it back to. Am I wrong about this?

    JVW (fd30ab)

  8. No, you are correct.
    The way it is now written is a payoff for union support, because without the revenue from the “Cadillac Tax”, the CBO report would have been even worse than it is. Originally, it was to have been implemented immediately, along with all of the other “revenue enhancements”.

    AD - RtR/OS! (d02306)

  9. So the GOP is trying to achieve the result of raising taxes, or lowering them?

    imdw (842182)

  10. Does anyone really believe that the Cadillac tax on the healthcare plans like the unions enjoy will ever actually be implemented? It was a gimmick for the CBO.

    JD (1cb1b5)

  11. Pat, put a $1 tax per post on imdw, timb, Dogcrap, and JEA, payable in advance of the posting. Send the proceeds, less a handling fee, to the US Treasury.

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  12. “Does anyone really believe that the Cadillac tax on the healthcare plans like the unions enjoy will ever actually be implemented? It was a gimmick for the CBO.”

    The original house bill didn’t have it — the funding the cadillac tax provides came from taxes on incomes in the several hundred thousand dollars. The Senate put it in. Since it’s a tax, future changes to it can come in budget reconciliations.

    So does anyone have the answer? Is the GOP trying to achieve the result of raising taxes, or lowering them?

    imdw (ce2d4e)

  13. Will someone put imd-dipstick in moderation until he can be cogent and worth reading?

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  14. I don’t know what all the fuss is about. The bill is passed and the President is signing it RIGHT NOW, cornhusker kickback and all.

    Amphipolis (b120ce)

  15. Wait – but Obama said to Bret Baier, just last week –

    Now I have said that there are certain provisions, like this Nebraska one, that don’t make sense. And they needed to be out. And we have removed those.
    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,589589,00.html

    Am I missing something? Isn’t he signing them as I write this?

    Amphipolis (b120ce)

  16. #13 PCD — Guess he did not get his talking points yet, PCD; kind of fun to watch though, a partisan without principles who does not know which side of the issue he should support.

    Also proof positive of the lack of understanding of what has just occurred. He probably thinks this is about health care and education. He does not yet realize the fundamentals have just been altered.

    Pons Asinorum (35b979)

  17. So nobody knows what the GOP is up to here?

    imdw (2b691a)

  18. Hey Dipstick, you owe Pat $1 for post 17 alone. Keep racking up the bill because you’ll have to pay it and no one else.

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  19. Maybe it’s not so much that nobody knows what the GOP is doing, but nobody cares. How sad. For them.

    imdw (4fe3dc)

  20. Maybe it’s not so much that nobody knows what the GOP is doing, but nobody cares. How sad. For them.
    Comment by imdw — 3/23/2010 @ 2:04 pm

    I think it’s more that people recognize you’re not worth engaging in a serious manner. Not everyone yet, but it’s getting there (thankfully).

    Stashiu3 (44da70)

  21. That’s right; the GOP is pushing for taxes to be raised. Thank GOD!!! that you were here to point out this obvious bit of hypocrisy on the part of the party of lower-taxes. Write it up as a 1500-word piece of meandering partisan bilge-spew and your job at Kos is in the ag-bay. That’s the big time, baby! The Show. No more hanging out here in the minors for you!

    Even better . . . start your own blog: The Workers Control The Means of Legislation

    Icy Texan (a27687)

  22. “That’s right; the GOP is pushing for taxes to be raised.”

    See how hard that was stash? It looks like the GOP won’t succeed in taxing working people more though. Not on this. And not on paul ryan’s plan either.

    imdw (4fe3dc)


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