JimBowie1958
Old Fogey
- Sep 25, 2011
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This is a great little article that explains most of the convoluted Senate rules regarding WHY Ryan framed the AHCA the way he did. He still should have tried to be more open about the bill, but he was being very careful to use the Reconciliation rules to not need 60 votes in the Senate.
Conservatives must learn Senate rules or Obamacare will never be repealed.
Conservatives must learn Senate rules or Obamacare will never be repealed.
And, as I have stated earlier there is NOTHING in the AHCA that Conservatives should have disagreed with if they would have actually taken the time to READ it. Every one of them has an opinion of it but very few if any can honestly say they actually READ it. You can read my assessment of the incredible RELIEF we could have provided millions of Americans just by passing “Phase one” here. Instead, we’re all now STUCK with Obamacare until at least 2019 because we can only use the Budget reconciliation process once each fiscal year and our current fiscal year ends in May. So, that means even if we COULD get the “Freedom Caucus” to work with us and pass a Budget Reconcilation bill in 2018, we will get NO relief from Obamacare now until 2019. Unless of course we can convince 8 Democrat Senators to vote with us to reach the 60 vote threshold in the U.S. Senate....
Why was Senator Cruz forced to follow the Byrd Rule via Budget Reconciliation in 2015? Because a FULL repeal vote would have required 60 votes in the U.S. Senate under Rule 22 which would require 8 senate Democrat votes which we DID NOT HAVE THEN and we DO NOT HAVE NOW. This was the necessity of following the same rules in our recent attempt (foiled by the “Freedom Caucus”) to pass the American Health Care Act....
The other bogus argument being made by Conservatives is that we can just “use the Nuclear Option” to “shove it through“. This is NOT possible because the “Nuclear Option” used most recently by Harry Reid to shove through former President Obama’s judicial appointees IS NOT USED to pass LEGISLATION. A SEPARATE senate rule was created to pass legislation passed with only a 51 vote simple majority. It’s called the Byrd Rule (mentioned earlier) which is how we were going to attempt to pass the American Health Care act. This brings us to the next fantasy “well let’s just change the Senate rules then!” Changing a Senate rule requires 67 votes which would require 15 Democrat votes in the Senate which we also DO NOT HAVE.
And lastly, the total fantasy argument being made which says Mitch McConnell should just render the 60 vote majority rule or the 67 vote rule to change Senate rules “unconstitutional” which according to this fantasy requires only a simple majority vote (at least 51 Republican senators). In order to make this fantasy a reality, those who propose it actually BELIEVE that we would somehow get the support of John McCain and his life partner Lindsey, Jeff Flake, Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, Shelley Moore Capito and Cory Gardner (the last four want to KEEP Medicaid expansion under Obamacare).
Why was Senator Cruz forced to follow the Byrd Rule via Budget Reconciliation in 2015? Because a FULL repeal vote would have required 60 votes in the U.S. Senate under Rule 22 which would require 8 senate Democrat votes which we DID NOT HAVE THEN and we DO NOT HAVE NOW. This was the necessity of following the same rules in our recent attempt (foiled by the “Freedom Caucus”) to pass the American Health Care Act....
The other bogus argument being made by Conservatives is that we can just “use the Nuclear Option” to “shove it through“. This is NOT possible because the “Nuclear Option” used most recently by Harry Reid to shove through former President Obama’s judicial appointees IS NOT USED to pass LEGISLATION. A SEPARATE senate rule was created to pass legislation passed with only a 51 vote simple majority. It’s called the Byrd Rule (mentioned earlier) which is how we were going to attempt to pass the American Health Care act. This brings us to the next fantasy “well let’s just change the Senate rules then!” Changing a Senate rule requires 67 votes which would require 15 Democrat votes in the Senate which we also DO NOT HAVE.
And lastly, the total fantasy argument being made which says Mitch McConnell should just render the 60 vote majority rule or the 67 vote rule to change Senate rules “unconstitutional” which according to this fantasy requires only a simple majority vote (at least 51 Republican senators). In order to make this fantasy a reality, those who propose it actually BELIEVE that we would somehow get the support of John McCain and his life partner Lindsey, Jeff Flake, Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, Shelley Moore Capito and Cory Gardner (the last four want to KEEP Medicaid expansion under Obamacare).