It seems that the idea of using reconciliation to fix the Senate health care bill is even more far-fetched than I thought:
Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota and chairman of the Budget Committee, said the reconciliation instructions in last year’s budget resolution seemed to require that Mr. Obama sign the Senate bill into law before it could be changed.
“It’s very hard to see how you draft, and hard to see how you score, a reconciliation bill to another bill that has not yet been passed and become law,” Mr. Conrad said. “I just advise you go read the reconciliation instructions and see if you think it has been met if it doesn’t become law.”
So the idea that the president would sign the bill and its “fix” at the same time isn’t just far-fetched, it’s probably impossible. The Senate can’t even take up the fix until the Senate bill has been signed into law. At that point, the Senate will likely find that it has other things to do.
The House Democrats are complete fools if they go for this scam. (Which is not to say they won’t.)
(Previous post.) (Via Hot Air.)
Internet Scofflaw 