Something stirring in the Democratic caucus?
An item posted by Robert Costa at the Corner on Thursday January 21 is the first indication I’ve seen since Scott Brown’s election that the Democrats are working on a definite path to passing a health care bill and intend to push it through. Every other story I’ve seen says that they have not been able to agree on a way forward. Also there was Speaker Pelosi’s statement that she does not have the votes in the House to pass the Senate version, which, as I understand it, though I’m not sure, would be the first step of the reconciliation path. It’s also not clear to me whether Pelosi made her statement before or after Rep. Ryan’s statement to National Review. If it was after, then I assume that the Democratic plan described by Ryan has become inoperative, though I’m not sure of that. Also, even if, as Ryan says, lots of Democrats want to push forward, it’s clear that lots of other Democrats do not want to push forward and want to leave the health care issue to the side at least for a few weeks to work on other things. Without a unified Democratic caucus nothing can happen.
Paul Ryan on Reconciliation [Robert Costa] A. Zarkov writes:
Chris Matthews demolishes Representative Alan Grayson who claims the Senate can and will (within thirty days) pass the health care bill using reconciliation. Grayson simply does not understand Senate procedures and won’t accept the fact that reconciliation can’t be used to pass legislation creating a new program. It’s utterly amazing that a member of Congress could be so ignorant about procedures, but Grayson goes beyond ignorance and displays delusional thinking. Matthews keeps asking him what he knows that Harry Reid doesn’t, and if reconciliation were such an easy solution why are the Democrats so upset about Scott Brown’s election? It’s something out of the movie Groundhog Day, where the robot-like Grayson keeps repeating his non-responsive answers over and over. This is the same Grayson who thinks he can have someone criminally prosecuted for having launched the appropriately named website, mycongressmanisnuts. Evidently Grayson doesn’t understand the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution either. Can there be any doubt that in many cases liberalism is a type of mental disorder? Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 23, 2010 09:58 AM | Send Email entry |