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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 2/24/10

Has a Shakeup Started in Washington?

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Message William Rivers Pitt

The president's plan retains most of the major elements of a bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve, including an expansion of insurance to cover 30 million Americans who lack insurance, government subsidies to help them afford it, and a combination of new taxes and spending reductions to cover the $950 billion price tag.

White House officials said yesterday that the president's proposal was crafted to allow it to pass without any Republican votes, if necessary, using a process called "reconciliation,'' which lets the Senate bypass a filibuster and adopt legislation by a simple majority of 51 votes, as long as each provision affects federal revenue.

For many on the Left, "The president's plan retains most of the major elements of a bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve" is code for "Pretty much the same crappy half-a-loaf bill that got stomped to death earlier this winter." That assumption, however, may be upended from another unlikely quarter. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, whose name could be changed to "Harry The Inert" after his anemic leadership of the majority to date, appears poised to use the same reconciliation process the White House is preparing to deploy as a means of passing an actual public option in the health care reform process.

"Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) announced on Friday afternoon that he would work with other Democrats and the White House to pass a public option through reconciliation if that's the legislative path the party chooses," reported the Huffington Post. "This represents a major breakthrough for those Senators and activists who are pushing to get a public option considered via an up or down vote." Passing any sort of actual health care reform, with or without the inclusion of a public option, is still far from certain. It is refreshing, though, to see actual movement on this front, not to mention on the jobs bill and the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

And perhaps, just perhaps, this could just be the beginning. According to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House of Representatives has passed some 290 pieces of legislation that have stalled out in the Senate, much to the exasperation of House Democrats. According to a report by The Hill, "The list of stalled bills includes both major and minor legislation: health care reform; climate change; food safety; financial aid for the US Postal Service; a job security act for wounded veterans; a Civil War battlefield preservation act; vision care for children; the naming of a federal courthouse in Iowa after former Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa); a National Historic Park named for President Jimmy Carter; a bill to improve absentee ballot voting; a bill to improve cybersecurity; and the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act."

Don't hold your breath, but still, it's interesting. This could be the beginning of something long, long overdue.

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William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know and The Greatest Sedition Is Silence.
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