No worries man i'll try and find an up to date version.DazedandConfusedinOR wrote:Well, it would be Congress who would have to attempt reconciliation, not Obama per se. Republicans and Democrats have both used the reconciliation process. For example, between 1981 and 2009 there have been 22 reconciliation bills - 14 by the Republicans and 8 by the Democrats, so both parties have utilized the process. However, reconciliation is typically used to balance budget bills - things that are simply too important to be in a perpetual state of limbo. Also, many reconciliation bills enjoyed bipartisan support. The current healthcare bill certainly doesn't fit this description. It is split along party lines and, what's more, a majority of Americans do not support the current health care bill. If the Dems were to force through their version of the bill, I can guarantee you Obama would not win a second term. Furthermore, many Democrats are going to be in for the fight of their political lives in upcoming mid-term elections and I promise you many are not going to risk upsetting their constituents to the point where it will cost them an election!
Edit: And yes, if you saw a healthcare bill that was 1,017 pages instead of 2,700 then it was most certainly not the current bill. I was watching C-SPAN and the current version is indeed 2,700 pages. I'm not saying it needs to be 10 pages, but what about a few hundred??
The American support for this process i find a bit strange. There's polls showing it swinging it both ways being reported by various sources.
This reform, imo, is an necessity to America. A much forgotten aspect of this is in economic terms is that people are much more productive when healthy.
It'll be interesting to see what happens next that's for sure.