Democrats' Rules Trickery Might Still Be Allowed

Kevin Glass | March 12, 2010 10:33 AM

Via Congressional Quarterly (subscription required) comes this report that the ruling made by the Senate Parliamentarian yesterday doesn't necessarily mean that the health care bill has to go through the entire legislative process before it can be changed:

The parliamentarian, however, later reportedly clarified his position to Senate aides, saying that the reconciliation bill could be written in a way that would not require Obama to sign the Senate bill into law before the reconciliation bill is voted on.

This is very inside-baseball stuff, but it gives the Democrats a small shortcut in their quest to pass this unpopular health care bill. Whereas it was reported yesterday that the Senate health care bill, which passed the Senate back in December, had to be passed by the House unamended and then signed by President Obama before any changes could be made, it now might seem that the bill could be changed without first going through Obama.

All this information seems to change hourly so this will likely not be the last you hear on this. On the other hand, raise your hand if you're tired of the whole debate and are annoyed that the boondoggle that is the Democrats' health care program has descended into discussions over rules trickery.