Remember “reconciliation”? Democrats used that budgetary device to pass a shell bill in the Senate to head off a filibuster of ObamaCare in early 2010, and then passed the full bill in the House to hand it to Barack Obama for his signature in March of that year. Republicans warned at the time that any legislation passed by reconciliation could be undone by the same method — and they used it to force Obama to veto repeal earlier this year.
Republicans plan to utilize it again at the beginning of the new session. John Cornyn told reporters yesterday that the plan is to have repeal ready as soon as possible for President Donald Trump’s signature — possibly on Day One of his presidency, although a staffer later walked that back a bit (via Instapundit):
Congressional Republicans may be mulling a plan to repeal Obamacare before President-elect Trump takes office, a top GOP leader said Wednesday.
“Nothing has been decided but that is certainly one of the options,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters after a closed-door GOP meeting on Wednesday.
The plan could entail using a budgetary tool known as reconciliation, which allows legislation to pass the Senate with just 51 votes instead of the typical 60 votes. Senate Republicans earlier this year voted to repeal most of the healthcare law using reconciliation, but it was vetoed by President Obama.
“We can go ahead and repeal Obamacare as we’ve done before … but with the likelihood that this time President Trump would actually sign it into law.” Cornyn said.
This could create an early test of the Trump administration. ...Read the rest from Ed Morrissey HERE.
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