No, actually in 2005 it was used for healthcare reform.
No it wasn't. It was used to reduce Medicare spending, not to create Medicare itself.
It was used to dramatically increase medicare spending, not reduce it.
So if the healthcare bill before the house and senate merely consisted of extending medicare to all you would then support a reconciliation effort to pass it?
A couple of points here. One wrong cannot EVER be used to justify another one. Otherwise all bad acts committed by our own government (or any person) are always "justified". I have always opposed the creation of reconciliation for what it really is -the means for those in the Senate to avoid living up to its Constitutional obligations, restrictions and limitations for the benefit of those who happen to be serving at the moment. Which was never their right in the first place. They didn't like the fact it took a lot of work to hammer out budget issues TOUGH SHIT -it was never meant to be easy and quick for government to go hog wild with spending and taxing in the first place. Making it EASIER to hike taxes and thereby skirt the Constitutional restrictions that required at least 60 votes to raise taxes -is THE only reason Byrd, a Democrat, even came up with this one. So no surprise it is now Democrats who want to abuse this BIG TIME in order to ram down the throats of the American people what they have made clear they do not want and is a MAJOR, life altering MONSTROSITY intended to permanently change how this nation even functions forever while stripping people of rights and freedoms -forever!
Secondly you failed to point out a big fact about when reconciliation was used with regard to Medicare Part D. Unlike the THIS bill, it did not result in nearly doubling the size of government and create SEVENTY new government bureaucracies did it? And unlike this bill, it did NOT result in government laying claim to all sorts of "rights" it doesn't have -like ORDERING people to buy a product government has decided they must have just to exist in this country. Or face CRIMINAL CHARGES and a financial penalty! Where in the Constitution does it say I must spend my money as Congress sees fit just to EXIST in this country as a citizen? Or risk going to prison and having government confiscate my money?
And you failed to point out that Medicare Part D still passed with more than the Constitutional requirement of 60 votes, just like the Republican tax cuts passed with more than the 60 Constitutionally required votes as well. Reconciliation was used because of the belief they did not have the votes (which does not justify using it in the first place) but in the end, these passed with more than the number of Constitutionally required votes. Not the same thing here. Democrats are resorting to reconciliation BECAUSE they do not have the CONSTITUTIONALLY required 60 votes and know they never will on this one. Even people in their own party are refusing to vote in favor of this MONSTROSITY.
They are doing it BECAUSE they know they cannot Constitutionally pass this bill. They are doing it to AVOID, BYPASS and SKIRT our CONSTITUTION! THIS bill will result in THE most massive expansion of government AND government powers in our history. And just where do you think government gets more power than it had before? Anyone?
Government can ONLY claim new powers for itself by taking away powers we have, denying them to us ever again -and laying claim to those powers for itself instead. And it is liberals who applaud the loudest about government stripping people of more of their rights and powers and claiming it for government instead. As I've said many times, liberals LOVE the totalitarian state. Their agenda REQUIRES a totalitarian state because they know when people have the freedom to decide for themselves, they reject that liberal agenda every time. Just like they oppose the socialist health care MONSTROSITY Democrats are intent on ramming down our throats against our will.
If you think government has the right to order every adult in this country to buy a particular product it has deemed to be "good" for them, where do YOU draw the line? Think government has the right to punish you if you eat food items it has deemed "bad"? Do you think government has the right to punish you if you engage in activities it has deemed "unhealthy"? Did you know government is funding an NIH study trying to link gun ownership with health problems and another one trying to show that having "too many" liquor stores in a neighborhood increases the risk of being shot? Why would they waste OUR tax dollars on such studies I wonder? I'm sure those intent on trying to figure out another way of skinning that gun control cat were disappointed these nonstop studies trying to link gun ownership with all sorts of social ills just aren't panning out for them. So what is the REAL motive for those in government to keep funding such studies over and over looking for SOME link between gun ownership and a "social ill" that would justify government disarming citizens -and having the balls to use OUR money to do it! Just what do they intend to do about it when they finally find someone to produce their desired "results"?
If government owns your health care, it owns YOU and you have become the slave of government. In the name of trying to "reduce" health care costs, it will claim the "right" to financially penalize you for failing to live the way the government has decided is best for everyone -one size fits all. And maybe you really don't realize this one -but it means forfeiting your freedoms and right to run your own life and make your own decisions. Because government -oh, in the name of wanting to PROTECT you from your own "bad" decisions -will lay claim to the "right" to run your life for you.
"Freedom" means government cannot punish you for how you choose to exercise that freedom. PERIOD. If government has the "right" to punish you for it -you aren't free.
I know there are people who really do think its a wonderful trade off to sell off their liberty and freedoms (and those of everyone else) for such a cheap price -but I'm not one of them and I resent like hell the people demanding I must forfeit my own freedoms and those of my children just because they placed no real value on their own freedoms. I don't want a nanny government, I do not need nor want government telling me how to run my life in any way, punishing me for consuming food and drinks it has decided is not "good" for me or for engaging in activities it has deemed "unhealthy" and requires I be penalized for making those choices. It is not the proper role of government to provide what the vast majority of people can and DO provide for themselves. PERIOD. Because if government does it for you instead, you must first dance to its tune to get what you will now be paying even MORE than what it cost you before anyway! It will cost you more than before but now in order to get it, you must do what you are ORDERED to do to receive what you will still be billed for! And most importantly, for what is in reality a tiny minority who require assistance to get health care insurance, it will NEVER require destroying the entire system for everyone else who is actually satisfied with how it works for THEM!
Americans thought they already won the fight over who gets to tell the individual what to do in this country -whether it is government or the individual. Apparently some people think the wrong side won that fight.