ObamaCare: The sound of gridlock

posted at 12:20 am on December 3, 2009 by Karl

The Hill is alive with the sound of gridlock:

On the third day of a divisive debate, Democrats threatened to keep the Senate in session through the Christmas holiday if necessary to pass a healthcare reform bill that President Barack Obama has made his top domestic priority.

Republicans refused to agree to the timing of votes on either of the first two amendments — a Democratic plan to ease access to preventive health screenings for women and a Republican effort to restore more than $400 billion in cuts in Medicare, the government health program for the elderly and disabled.

While Dick Durbin huffed, “We’re not going to let them run this bill into the ground into next year,” there are potentially dozens of amendments to debate. And there have been any number of news reports in which top Dems (including Durbin) have expressed doubts that they would be done by Christmas. So why the early foot-stamping (of which the establishment media’s feigned shock that the GOP actually has a memo outlining their rights as a minority is a part)?

You might think that the Democratic tantrum stems from the realization that ObamaCare continues to lose public support. Senate Dems actually think they get some benefit from painting the GOP as obstructionist. But that may be an attempt to paper over the fact that Senate Democrats cannot do much to speed up the debate:

The main possibility being considered is that Reid could move to table irrelevant Republican amendments.

***

That could set off a dangerous dynamic, wherein Republicans table Democratic amendments, too, including some amendments (on issues like abortion and the public option) that are key to the rounding up the 60 votes Democrats need to overcome a filibuster and pass the bill.

***

Without a prefigured agreement, amendments that aren’t tabled can be filibustered, which can slow the debate down by days at a time.

Reid has other options at his disposal–he can file cloture on the bill itself, or “fill the amendment tree”–if the status quo breaks down entirely, but these prerogatives are typically saved, to be used as a last resort.

In fact, at this juncture, Reid does not have those options as a practical matter. The Democrats are not likely to have a “moderate” proposal on the so-called “public option” before next week (and you may have noticed that these timetables have a way of slipping). Reid cannot have the slightest hope of invoking cloture on the bill until the Dems have found some sort of consensus alternative to the “public option” Reid insisted in sticking into his merged proposal. Similarly, the Senate will burn time debating and voting on pro-life language from the House bill that Reid kept out of his bill. If only the GOP was doing as much as the Democratic leadership to drag out the debate on ObamaCare…

Blowback