Reconciliation for Health Care? Depends on Who You Ask.

As you can see from this video pulled from Politico's Live site, the feasibility and even the success of budget reconciliation as a means to pass the needed Health Care Reform legislation all depends on precisely who you ask.

Somewhere in the middle of the predictable GOP posturing about how they were left completely out of the process (when they have uniformly opposed it from start to finish), Democratic Senator Ken Conrad's insistence that reconciliation cannot be used to pass a comprehensive bill, or the cautious optimism of the director of the White House Office of Health Reform, Nancy-Ann DeParle, and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, is the truth of the matter.

For all of the talk about bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle, there are fundamental differences between conservatives, moderates, and progressives that go to the heart of how we see the role of government in our daily lives and the extent by which we are comfortable embracing change. However, in a democracy, the majority rules, and those who are in the minority need to understand it. This recent debate has shown us many things, but in particular it has shown that the Senate's arcane rules and procedures impede the progress of legislation. Regardless of how one views the role of reconciliation, the fact of the matter is that it exists and is an option on the table. Much like the laws governing this country, absolutes are few, and individual interpretation is crucial to both establishment of procedure and its enforcement.