Health Care Reform to be Rammed Through in Budget Deal

The New York Times reports that Congress will ram health care reform through by using the "budget reconciliation" process in order to minimize debate, eliminate potential amendments and avoid filibuster.

That means the American people have virtually no chance of knowing in advance anything substantive on how this is going to change our lives, nor will we have a chance to stop it.

Budget reconciliation means that the entire health care reform apparatus will be inserted at the House-Senate conference, and then the two houses vote on the entire budget. There is little chance that lawmakers, especially since most of them are enthusiastic progressives or, like the Blue Dogs, controlled by them, will vote against the overall budget because of health care.

Both parties have used this budget reconciliation tactic to blunt the opposition since the process was "invented" in 1974. As David Freddoso at National Review explains:

Reconciliation, originally designed in the 1974 Budget Act as a means for helping the government save money and keep federal budgets closer to balance, allows for certain legislation to pass both houses of Congress on an expedited basis — and perhaps most importantly, to pass the Senate with a bare majority.

It was also meant to make Congress more efficient, something our Founding Fathers were loathe to consider. They feared efficient government, and for the same reason we should fear it now.

I initially thought we might survive the first two years of a liberal Obama/Congress tandem with our Republic intact, enough anyway to elect enough conservatives in 2010 so that 2011 might open on a more hopeful note. Now I am not sure there will be enough individual liberty left to be worth saving.