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John Sununu, a former United States Senator from New Hampshire, has penned an excellent and informative piece in the Wall Street Journal laying out the process of "budget reconciliation" – a parliamentary maneuver that President Obama and Democratic Congressional leaders are expected to use to push through their massive health care plan.
"The power of a reconciliation bill is this: Senate rules allow only 20 hours of debate and then passage with a simple majority of 51 votes. This represents a lightning strike in the normal deliberative time-frame of the Senate. The historic precedent of open debate, and the requirement of 60 votes to close debate, are completely short-circuited.
"Budget reconciliation was never intended to push through dramatic and expansive new programs. It was created as a way to help a reluctant Congress curb spending, reduce deficits, and cut the debt. Moreover, changes made under reconciliation expire after five or 10 years, depending on the budget. This is clearly not the appropriate process for implementing significant new policies."
Not only is this abuse of the legislative process a probable reality, the legislation they are looking to ram though is hurtful to all of us as America will take on the likes of a socialized, government-run health care system.
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To see the perils of what government-run health care can do for a nation, check out this link here.
From Canada to Cuba to countries across Europe, the results are all the same: a lack of doctors and nurses (particularly well-trained ones), bed shortages and long waiting lists for treatments and surgeries, and rationed care.
While our current system is not perfect, it's the best there is. We should work to give Americans more choices in health care; not less. We should work to make health care more portable and more affordable; not subject all health consumers to a singular government bureaucracy. The Democrat plan is an extreme makeover for which we already know the ugly outcome. The examples of countries who went down this path exist all around us and the results are in - it's bad policy, plain and simple.
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