Written By : John Hawkins

What part of “We Will Kill Your ‘Fix’” do the Democrats not understand?

Using reconciliation to try to pass socialized medicine is the nuclear option and it means all-out-political-warfare in the Senate. If the Democrats are going to play it dirty by going that way, the GOP is going to use every procedural trick in the book to block it, embarrass the Dems, and delay the process.

Even mild mannered Orrin Hatch is throwing down the gauntlet:

There is a distinct possibility that the Democrats’ very partisan exercise could shut down the Senate. Let’s face it — if they’re going to play this kind of game then we will make sure they have one heck of a rough time from this day forward. There are all kinds of ways we could shut down the Senate, and I know them all.

So, if Bart Stupak thinks the GOP is going to play nice and allow the Democrats to stick his abortion language back in the health care plan — you know, the language Ben Nelson was bribed to drop via the Cornhusker Kickback — then he has another think coming:

“Everyone’s going around saying there’s a compromise—there’s no such thing,” Stupak said. What’s changed between this week and last, Stupak went on, is that he had his first real conversation with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Congressman Henry Waxman about fixing the bill…

Stupak affirmed that he will not settle for an agreement to pass the bill now and fix the bill’s problems on abortion later: “If they say ‘we’ll give you a letter saying we’ll take care of this later,’ that’s not acceptable because later never comes.”…

“Members don’t have a whole lot of appetite to vote for the Senate bill as a stand alone bill–that’s for sure,” Stupak said. “If you’re going to correct these inequities in the Senate bill, you better tie bar it to something. No one wants to vote for a freestanding bill so they can be accused of voting for a special deal for Nebraska on Medicaid.”…

By “tie-bar,” Stupak means that all the fixes, including his amendment on abortion, would pass or fail all at the same time.

Abortion has nothing to do with the budget, so it can’t be shoved through via reconciliation. What that means is that the Democrats would need 60 votes to pass it and the GOP is already saying nobody on their side will be supporting it.

Oh, but wouldn’t that mean the GOP  is  opposing a pro-life initiative? No. Because if they prevent Stupak’s amendment from being added in — and they will — the Senate bill isn’t going to pass the House and the whole issue is rendered moot.

Moreover, as I’ve said before, it seems unlikely that reconciliation is going to happen at all — and if there’s no reconciliation “fix,” then the House Dems aren’t going to vote for a Senate bill that they don’t like anyway.

What was it that Jim DeMint said about this bill? Something about Waterloo?

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