A Finale for Health Care?

After a year of debate in the House of Representatives and the Senate, thousands of town-hall meetings across the country, countless days of blockading through various Congressional rules and regulations, and preliminary passage in both chambers of Congress, it is high time for our members of Congress to pass comprehensive health-care reform. Yet it seems that partisan tactics will forever stymie any real reform.  Therefore, we believe it was appropriate for President Obama last week to indirectly call on Congress to invoke reconciliation, a budget procedure that allows for a simple-majority vote to overcome fiscal differences in the House and Senate versions of their respective bills on health-care reform. Though reconciliation is a drastic measure that should certainly be used only sparingly, it is perfectly appropriate as a last resort from the Democrats to solve a pressing national issue.

As expected, Republican Congressional leaders have unjustly criticized Obama’s suggestion of reconciliation, declaring that it represents an attempt to subvert the will of the people. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele described reconciliation as “a parliamentary trick”, while Senator Lindsay Graham (R – SC) described the effect of reconciliation as “catastrophic.” The Republican criticisms are highly disingenuous, however; of the 22 times reconciliation has been used since 1980, 17 were by Republicans. Most notably, the measure was used to pass both of President Bush’s tax cuts—an especially salient example, considering the 2003 tax-cut bill passed only after a tie-breaking, 51st vote cast by Vice President Cheney. Comparatively, the Senate passed its version of the health-care bill with 60 votes in December; if the tax cuts were passed using reconciliation by the Republicans, it is fair for the Democrats to use the measure as well.

Furthermore, we disapprove of the media’s reporting on the issue of health care and Congress’s attempt to reach an agreement on reform. Throughout the media coverage, the current effort to pass a bill has been portrayed as ramming reform down voters’ throats, despite the fact that the bill still has 59 votes in the Senate. From the usual conservative press coverage like The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times to more independent coverage like CNN and Time Magazine, the media has consistently and misguidedly portrayed the bill as blatantly ignoring the will of the people. Such reporting distracts from the real issues at hand and has taken away from many of the key issues of the debate.

Despite some botched handling of the issue, we do commend President Obama for sticking to health-care reform in spite of the difficult political climate. Burdened by other pressing issues, like the need for jobs creation and Sen. Scott Brown’s critical electoral win, the president has maintained focus on health care in the rising spotlight and not let the issue die. While many other issues merit action, health care is, nevertheless, one of the president’s top domestic priorities. Given the extraordinary efforts to derail it, President Obama has now acted decisively on the future of the bill.

In light of the current political situation, reconciliation is a legitimate and necessary move to finally assure the passage of a comprehensive health-care reform bill.