Democrat Senator Kent Conrad, yesterday clearly explains why the process of "reconciliation" absolutely cannot be used to shove health-care reform down America's throat... starting at around the 1:50 mark in the video.

What Sen. Conrad reveals for us is a couple of things...

1] Most democrats and republicans do not understand what "reconciliation" is or is not... and they don't understand what "reconciliation" can or cannot do.
2] Those in Congress and the White House that in fact do understand "reconciliation" are therefore taking advantage of those that don't understand it to intimidate and bully those that don't understand into thinking they can use it... when they in fact cannot.
3] "Reconciliation" is an impotent threat to attempt to force 60 senators to finally come together and pass some form of "reform" of health-care... out of ignorance and intimidation.
4] We can sleep a little easier tonight thanks to Sen. Kent Conrad.

H/T countryboy 1949 for video and text.

Sen. Kent Conrad, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, on Face The Nation, has a distinct opinion on whether budget reconciliation would work for health care: yes to fixes, no to the bill itself.

"...reconciliation cannot be used to pass comprehensive health care reform. It won't work. It won't work because it was never designed for that kind of significant legislation. It was designed for deficit reduction... The major package of health care reform cannot move through the reconciliation process. It will not work... It will not work because of the Byrd rule which says anything that doesn't score for budget purposes has to be eliminated. That would eliminate all the delivery system reform, all the insurance market reform, all of those things the experts tell us are really the most important parts of this bill. The only possible role that I can see for reconciliation would be make modest changes in the major package to improve affordability, to deal with what share of Medicaid expansion the federal government pays, those kinds of issues, which is the traditional role for reconciliation in health care."

Now we know that "reconciliation" cannot pass health-care reform... if only congress knew.

xtnyoda, shalomed