There are so many twists and turns yet to be taken by the current legislative saga, but what ever happened to the so-called "nuclear option" of reconciliation, attaching health care reform to a bill needing only 51 votes to proceed?

I was under the impression that the "nuclear option" meant repealing the 60 vote cloture rule and going back to the simply majority that it was in the past?

The reconcilliation route is not as simple as attaching the bill to the budget, and the Republicans were only able to do it in the past by firing and hiring until they had a pliable Senate Parlementarian!

The "best" solution is to make Senators threatening to filibuster actually do it!

For what it's worth, I believe reconciliation applies only to bills with direct monetary impact. The new welfare program would have to be passed in two parts, one that breaks the federal budget and a second that obligates people and the states to pay staggering amounts of money for coverage less than required.

In less careful and objective language, here's the problem as expressed in the Huffington Post back in September:

The procedural obstacles that Democrats would find in the way of many elements of their healthcare reform agenda would require them to pass two bills if they used reconciliation. Proposals that fell to Gregg’s procedural objections would need to pass in a “sidecar” bill that must win the support of 60 senators.

Democrats argue that provisions such as banning discrimination on the basis of pre-existing conditions and promoting healthier habits could win broad approval. But some Republicans say that ramming major elements of reform through the chamber with a simple majority would create enough animosity to kill the accompanying bill.

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Thanks Philidor,

I new there was more to it, and your post filled in the gap.

Reconciliation is a pipe dream. It'll never happen. It would require both bills to pass and now that the Dems have let the cat out of the bag that they're considering reconciliation, there's no way the opposition will allow the second, non-revenue affecting, bill to pass. It'll go down to a filibuster. That's even assuming the parlimentary rules guy even gives it a green light in the first place.