Thoughts of Obama from Bama

Week 58: Reconciliation

“About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation” Will Rogers

Our founding fathers were justifiably greatly concerned about the separation of powers and checks and balances to counter the authority of a strong central Government. For instance, the Constitution specifically indentifies the President as the Commander-in-Chief but gives the Congress the authority to declare war.

Another real bone of contention was the structure of a legislative body. The number of representatives from each state, the process for elections and powers granted to the legislators were all hotly disputed issues. A compromise was finally reached creating a bicameral system consisting of the House of Representatives and Senate.

After a few duels, trashing of one another’s wives, threats to go public about illegitimate youngins and accusations of cavorting with concubines (sounds like the Clinton Administration and the Edwards campaign) it was agreed the number of House members would be determined by the population of each state and the Senate would be made up of two representatives from each state regardless of size or population. The House was also structured to accommodate a “need for speed” while legislation in the Senate, as intended by all them good ole boys at the Constitutional Convention, moves as slow as molasses.

To encourage a deliberate and even bipartisan process Senate rules also call for a “super majority”, three-fifths or two-thirds, on a number of important issues including – cloture, ratifying a treaty, amendments to the Constitution and ending a Filibuster.

One passionate, long winded Senator who loves the sound of his/her own voice, a characteristic shared by a super-super majority consisting of all one-hundred of our Senatorial blowhards, can Filibuster to their heart’s delight unless a super majority of sixty votes can be gathered to shut said Senator the hell up. For over two-hundred years the rules set up by the boys in attendance at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia allows one or just a few Senators to slow play a bill or even bury it deep beneath the Capitol Rotunda keeping it from seeing the light of day for years has worked fair to midland in running the clock out on hundreds of ill conceived, budget busting, boneheaded pieces of legislation.

Why the 1974 Democrat controlled Congress passed a Budget Bill with an innocent sounding provision called Reconciliation, a procedure designed to circumvent the deliberate, considered, tried and true rules of the Senate, just may have been a result of the post Watergate wave of radical leftwing tie died pointy headed liberals that infested Capital Hill that year. These rebellious coke snorting, pot smoking, Free Bird children of the sixties obviously had no respect at all for time tested traditions and rules of the Senate like not messing with their slow and purposeful way of doing bizness.

Reconciliation does sound harmless enough. The definition actually provides one with hope and inspiration – “the ending of conflict or the renewing of a friendly relationship between disputing people or groups” or synonymous with “understanding”; “resolution”; “compromise”; and “reunion”.

Wording in the 1974 Budget Bill was also non-threatening and seemingly innocuous – “A reconciliation instruction is a provision in a

budget resolution directing one or more committees to submit legislation changing existing law in order to bring spending, revenues, or the debt-limit into conformity with the budget resolution. The instructions specify the committees to which they apply, indicate the appropriate dollar changes to be achieved, and usually provide a deadline by which the legislation is to be reported or submitted”.

According to our Constitutional Scholar-in-Chief and his Congressional Comrades Speaker “Pit-bull” Pelosi and Majority Leader “Soon to be the Former Senior Senator From Nevada” Reid Reconciliation means “backdoor; deceitful; abuse of power; bend the rules to the breaking point; sneaky; dishonest; low down cheaten; arrogant; perversion of Senatorial rules so we can railroad Socialized Medicine through Congress contrary to the wishes of two-thirds of We the People."

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After this week’s Ho Ax of a Healthcare Summit, hoax to all you Yankee Americans, our Meeting Facilitator-in-Chief has made several empty gestures to appease the GOP and at the same time made his intentions to misuse the Budget fixen procedure known as Reconciliation to ram through his Government run Socialized Medicine debacle crystal clear.

Considering the publically stated views of several Senior members of the “Hope, Change and Believe” gang about the inappropriate use of Reconciliation their plans to use this Budget resolution procedure now as the catalyst of what seems to be nothing less than a hostile takeover one-sixth of the US economy reeks with a stench of hypocrisy seldom seen even in DC.

The pillars of virtue and integrity advocating an “up and down vote”, Reconciliation, a majority vote of 51 as opposed to 60 as required by the Constitution ignoring two hundred years of senate rules to illegally pass Obamacare now had a totally different opinion of this budget resolution procedure when W wrongly considered using the measure for approving Justices (They did conclude it was not appropriate for votes of this nature) five years ago.

Their loud and passionate rhetoric condemning the use of Reconciliation at the time was really quite persuasive and inspirational:

· “The right to extend a debate is never more important than when one party controls both Congress and the White House. The filibuster serves as a check, on power, preserve our limited government.” Majority Leader Reid
· “This is the way Democracy ends. Not with a bomb but with a gavel” Senator Max Baucus
· “So this president has come to the majority here in the Senate and basically said ‘change the rules.’ ‘Do it the way I want it done.’ And I guess there just weren’t very many voices on the other side of the isle that acted the way previous generations of senators have acted and said ‘Mr. President we are with you, we support you, but that’s a bridge too far we can’t go there.’ You have to restrain yourself Mr. President.” Then Senator Hillary Clinton
· “We are on the precipice of a crisis, a constitutional crisis. The checks and balances which have been at the core of this Republic are about to be evaporated by the nuclear option. The checks and balances which say that if you get 51% of the vote you don’t get your way 100% of the time. It is amazing it’s almost a temper tantrum.” Senator Charles Schumer
· “The nuclear option if successful will turn the Senate into a body that could have its rules broken at any time by a majority of senators unhappy with any position taken by the minority. It begins with judicial nominations. Next will be executive appointments and then legislation.” Senator Dianne Feinstein
· “This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power. It is a fundamental power grab. I say to my friends on the Republican side you may own the field right now buy you won’t own it forever I pray God when the Democrats take back control we don't make the kind of naked power grab you are doing.” Then Senator Joe Biden
· “He hasn’t gotten his way…uh…and that is now prompting a change in the Senate rules that really I think would change the character of the Senate uh forever and uh what I worry about would be that you essentially have still two chambers the House and the Senate but you have simply majoritarian uh absolute power on on either side and that’s just not what the Founders intended.” Our Reconciliatory-in-Chief his self, Barack Husain Obama

Might be going a tad out a limb here but it seems this group of “strict Constitutionalist” didn’t think to highly of Reconciliation when W thought about using it. Their words still ring true today as they consider using this illegal procedure now to pass Socialized Medicine.

With all due respect Mr. President, Reconcile This. Leading your dominions in this illegal violation of our Constitution is truly emblematic of your corrupt Administration.

I am, “American by Birth and Southern by the Grace of God”

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Ron W. Garikes