Reconciliation is a buzz word that keeps on popping up now that Scott Brown has thrown a cog into the Democrats super majority. When it became apparent that the healthcare bill was for all intents and purposes dead, the White House and democrat leaders in congress are gearing up to try to push the bill through by way of reconciliation.

Let’s put aside the repercussions for democrats if they use this tactic, and instead focus on what the process of Reconciliation involves.

What is reconciliation?

Reconciliation is a fast-track legislative process that allows the Senate in a limited time period to pass a bill with the support of only 51 Senators.  A typical Senate bill can be slowed down by a single Senator, and blocked by 41 Senators.  This does not true for a reconciliation bill.

Reconciliation is a budget maneuver that makes the filibuster impotent, and would allow Senate Democrats to pass reform without any support from Republicans, on a simple majority vote.

When it comes to health care reform, some Senate Democrats are attracted to reconciliation because it would allow them to pass a bill even if there are 59 senators that oppose the bill.

How a normal Senate bill works

After debates and amendments if 60 out of 100 Senators decide to close the bill, this is called the “cloture” process, and it’s typically called for my the Senate majority leader. This is done in order to close off debate and place a hard limit on amendments and time.  If 60 Senators vote to “invoke cloture” on a bill, this guarantees that the bill will come to a final passage vote by a time certain.

Obama will stop at nothing to get Healthcare

These are the reasons why there was so much focus on Senator Brown breaking the Democrats super majority.  If all 60 Senate Democrats all vote to invoke cloture on a bill, the 40 Republicans can do nothing about it.  This is why a super majority of 60 Senators is the holy grail to both political parties, as they can act with impunity.

How a reconciliation bill works

The full name of this unique bill is a “budget reconciliation” bill.  It’s purpose is to combine into one bill the work of multiple committees that are changing federal spending and tax laws.  It is an incredibly powerful tool that bypasses the steps list above for a normal bill, but only for very limited purposes.  Senators usually value unlimited debate and amendment rights of individual Senators, and so they allow these rules to be circumvented only for a very specific purpose, in this case, healthcare.

The House and Senate are required to pass the budget resolution in the spring of each year.  In essence, this is the document that lays out how much the U.S government will spend in an upcoming year.  A budget resolution can contain reconciliation instruction(s). In turn, reconciliation instructions create reconciliation bills.

Usually,  you can use a reconciliation bill only to change spending, taxes, or the debt ceiling.  The process was used initially to facilitate deficit reduction. This requires the various Senate committees to produce bills that reduce the deficit by those pre-determined amounts.

A typical Senate reconciliation instruction might look like this:

When the Senate Majority Leader starts debate on this reconciliation bill, there are strict limits, unlike for a normal bill:

• Debate and voting time is limited to 20 hours, no more and no less.
• Amendments and debate must be relevant to the bill, as to use time efficient.

The first point means that a reconciliation bill cannot be endlessly debated or  amended.  Reconciliation means there is never a need to invoke cloture to shut off debate or amendments, as a result the existing majority needs only 51 votes to  pass the reconciliation bill.  Simply put, the difference between needing 51 votes and needing 60 votes is enormous.

Here is what Mitch McConnell had to allow about this process on Sunday’s news show on Fox.

WASHINGTON – Democrats on Saturday clinched the votes needed to advance the Senate’s version of President Obama’s health care overhaul to the floor for a historic debate scheduled to begin shortly after 8 p.m..

Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas was the last of three Democratic holdouts to announce her support for the procedural vote. Earlier, Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana said she would support the debate, one day after Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska announced his intent to vote yes.

All three cautioned that their votes to start debate should not be construed as an indication of how they’ll vote when the debate ends.

“It is a vote to move forward to continue the good and essential and important and imperative work that is underway,” Landrieu said on the Senate floor. “I’ve decided that there’s enough significant reforms and safeguards in this bill to move forward but more work needs to be done.”

Lincoln said she’ll support a filibuster if the so-called “public option,” a government-run insurance plan, remains in the health care bill.

“I along with others expect to have legitimate opportunities to influence the health care reform legislation that is voted on by the Senate later this year or early next year,” she said.

The announcements by Landrieu and Lincoln came ahead of the Senate’s first vote on Majority Leader Harry Reid’s $848 billion, 2,074-page bill in a rare Saturday session scheduled to last into the evening.

Saturday’s vote is seen as a test of the Republican Party’s unified opposition, a fragmented Democratic majority and the White House, which has made health care its top domestic priority.

With Lincoln’s support, Reid now has the 60 votes he needs to prevail in the 100-seat Senate. The 40 Republicans are unanimously opposed.

While the vote is only a procedural one, it is a key hurdle, and Republicans plan to fight tooth and nail against it.

“This is a vote about whether or not you want to fundamentally change the way health care is delivered in this country in a way which massively expands the size of government, the role of government and significantly increases the tax burden, especially for small businesses and cuts Medicare by a dramatic amount of money,” Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., told Fox News before Saturday’s session began.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the bill “monstrous” and, citing the Congressional Budget Office, said it would not bring down costs.

Democrats said their legislation could make historic and necessary improvements in the country’s social safety net.

“Prices of health care are marching relentlessly upwards, and so too many people don’t have coverage,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. “The purpose of all of this is to try to get a handle on it somehow.”

Most everyone would be required to purchase insurance under Reid’s legislation, and billions in new taxes would be levied on insurers and high-income Americans to help extend coverage to 30 million uninsured. Insurance companies would no longer be allowed to deny coverage to people with medical conditions or drop coverage when someone gets sick.

Republicans used their weekly radio and Internet address to slam the legislation, calling it a government takeover of health care that would increase taxes and raise medical costs.

“This 2,000-page bill will drive up the cost of health care insurance and medical care, not down,” Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said in the address. “This is not true health care reform, and it is not what the American people want. This bill will result in higher premiums and higher health care costs for Americans — period.”

The White House issued a statement late Friday praising the Senate measure. “This bill provides the necessary health reforms that the administration seeks — affordable, quality care within reach for the tens of millions of Americans who do not have it today, and stability and security for the hundreds of millions who do,” the statement said.

The action in the Senate comes two weeks after the House approved a health overhaul bill of its own on a 220-215 vote. After the vote Saturday night, senators will leave for a Thanksgiving recess. Upon their return, assuming Democrats prevail on the vote, they will launch into weeks or more of unpredictable debate on the health care bill, with numerous amendments expected from both sides of the aisle and more 60-vote hurdles along the way.

Senate leaders hope to pass their bill by the end of the year. If that happens, January would bring work to reconcile the House and Senate versions before a final package could land on Obama’s desk.

The bills have many similarities, including the new requirements on insurers and the creation of new purchasing marketplaces called exchanges where self-employed individuals and small businesses could go to shop for and compare coverage plans. One option in the exchanges would be a new government-offered plan, something that’s opposed by private insurers and business groups.

Differences include requirements for employers. The House bill would require medium and large businesses to cover their employees, while the Senate bill would not require them to offer coverage but would make them pay a fee if the government ends up subsidizing employees’ coverage.

Another difference is in how they’re paid for. The Senate bill includes a tax on high-value insurance policies that’s not part of the House bill, while the House would levy a new income tax on upper-income Americans that’s not in the Senate measure. The Senate measure also raises the Medicare payroll tax on income above $200,000 annually for individuals and $250,000 for couples. Both bills rely on more than $400 billion in cuts to Medicare.

The Senate bill was written by Reid in private negotiations with White House officials, combining elements of two committee-passed bills and making additional changes with an eye to getting the necessary 60 votes.

Along the way, Reid sweetened the pot for individual senators, adding federal funds for Louisiana and agreeing to support an amendment written by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that would expand eligibility for the purchasing exchanges.