United Liberty

It looks like the president and Democrats are ready to make a push on ObamaCare, which will likely be forced through Congress using reconciliation:

President Barack Obama is expected to publish his healthcare plan as early as Sunday or Monday, combining features of the two Democratic bills passed by the Senate and House of Representatives, congressional aides and healthcare advocates said on Friday.
[…]
The legislation the White House will post on its website is expected to reflect common ground negotiated over the past several weeks by House and Senate Democratic leaders.

Those agreements are likely to be combined as a privileged budget reconciliation bill, which only needs a simple 51-vote majority to pass the 100-member Senate instead of the 60-vote supermajority that has become routine in the Senate and gives Republicans power to block the healthcare bill.

“I believe that’s the path we are going to take,” a senior congressional Democratic aide said.

The government-run health care option is not off the table, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). One thing I’m not clear on is whether this will be a new bill or the House will vote on the Senate’s version and produce a second bill, through reconciliation.

Reconciliation is not a cureall for Democrats’ problems with ObamaCare. As Jeff Davis notes at The New Republic, the process is anything but fast. and the minority can offer an unlimited amount of amendments, each of which must be voted on.

It’s uncertain whether the votes are there in the House to move this through. Remember, there are two vacancies on the Democratic Party’s side of the aisle (Robert Wexler resigned on January 3rd and Jack Murtha died earlier this month) in the House that were present with then they pushed ObamaCare through in November of last year by just three votes. There will be a third vacancy as of February 28th, when Rep. Neil Abercrombie will resign to run for Governor of Hawaii. Also, Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) has publicly stated that he will not vote for ObamaCare again.

Start working the phones, especially if you live in a district represented by a Blue Dog Democrat. You can refer to this spreadsheet to see how Blue Dogs voted in November and phone numbers for their DC office.