60 votes or nothing: Senate parliamentarian warns Republicans about rules for health care bill

[Geee]

Washington Times

Key parts of the Republican health care bill, including defunding Planned Parenthood and barring the use of tax credits for abortion coverage, are not eligible for the fast-track process Republicans are using to prevent a Democratic filibuster, says the Senate’s referee, throwing yet another roadblock in front of President Trump’s attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare this week.

Already, Republican leaders are struggling to gather enough support from the party’s rank and file for their replacement bill or a straightforward repeal of the 2010 law, even though they are leveraging “budget reconciliation” rules to carve Democrats out of the process.

In new guidance, the Senate parliamentarian made their task tougher by saying key parts of the plan should require 60 votes to pass, according to Senate Democrats on the Budget Committee.

“The parliamentarian’s decision today proves once again that the process Republicans have undertaken to repeal the Affordable Care Act and throw 22 million Americans off of health insurance is a disaster,” Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, said after detailing Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough’s findings on Friday.

[Draggingtree]

3 hours ago, Geee said:

Washington Times

Key parts of the Republican health care bill, including defunding Planned Parenthood and barring the use of tax credits for abortion coverage, are not eligible for the fast-track process Republicans are using to prevent a Democratic filibuster, says the Senate’s referee, throwing yet another roadblock in front of President Trump’s attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare this week.

Already, Republican leaders are struggling to gather enough support from the party’s rank and file for their replacement bill or a straightforward repeal of the 2010 law, even though they are leveraging “budget reconciliation” rules to carve Democrats out of the process.

In new guidance, the Senate parliamentarian made their task tougher by saying key parts of the plan should require 60 votes to pass, according to Senate Democrats on the Budget Committee.

“The parliamentarian’s decision today proves once again that the process Republicans have undertaken to repeal the Affordable Care Act and throw 22 million Americans off of health insurance is a disaster,” Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, said after detailing Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough’s findings on Friday.

Something is amiss here

[Draggingtree]

Will the Senate Parliamentarian Try to Save Obamacare?

·         DAVID CATRON

  

Leader Trent Lott got so sick of inconsistent rulings by the parliamentarian with whom he had been saddled, he fired the man. The Washington Post provided a few of the details at the time under this predictably tendentious headline: “Key Senate Official Loses Job in Dispute With GOP.”

Senate Parliamentarian Robert Dove, the official responsible for enforcing the chamber’s rules and procedures, has been asked to leave his post after a dispute with the Republican leadership, Senate sources said yesterday.… Republicans declined to say why Dove had been asked to leave, but his departure will force the appointment of a new parliamentarian — one of the Senate’s most important, if least-known, officers.

 It isn’t necessary to fire the parliamentarian, however, to get around an obviously partisan ruling. If MacDonough actually reverses herself on whether Planned Parenthood defunding cannot be accomplished via reconciliation, it is also possible for the President of the Senate (i.e. Vice President Pence) to ignore her. This is a solution to the MacDonough problem that has been advocated for months by Ted Cruz. The Texas Senator says that the role of the parliamentarian is to advise rather than to issue rulings. The Senate usually follows the advice of the parliamentarian,  https://spectator.org/will-the-senate-parliamentarian-try-to-save-obamacare/

[Draggingtree]

Key Senate Official Loses Job in Dispute With GOP

By Helen Dewar May 8, 2001

Senate Parliamentarian Robert Dove, the official responsible for enforcing the chamber's rules and procedures, has been asked to leave his post after a dispute with the Republican leadership, Senate sources said yesterday.

Dove angered Republicans, especially Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), with at least two recent rulings that effectively made it harder for the GOP to push President Bush's budget and tax cut proposals through the evenly divided body.

Republicans declined to say why Dove had been asked to leave, but his departure will force the appointment of a new parliamentarian -- one of the Senate's most important, if least-known, officers at a time in which the Democrats and Republicans are seeking to operate under an unprecedented power-sharing arrangement.   https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/05/08/key-senate-official-loses-job-in-dispute-with-gop/e2310021-0f14-4667-a261-54e6c033207c/?utm_term=.6aca4b05999d

[Draggingtree]

Why The Motion To Proceed On An Obamacare Bill Is A Sucker’s Bet

Without a clear vision of the final legislation and an agreement from 50 Republican senators to preserve that vision on the Senate floor, proceeding to the bill will result in a policy morass.

 

By Christopher Jacobs

JULY 24, 2017

In trying to win support for their Obamacare “repeal-and-replace” bill, Republican Senate leaders are making a process argument to their fellow senators: We know you don’t like the bill, but work to mend it, rather than ending the process. As Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, argued, “We gotta get on the bill.…If we don’t at least get on the bill, we’re never going to know.”

 

It’s a typical leadership argument: The promised land is only one bad vote away, not two bad votes, not ten bad votes, only one bad vote away. (Until the next bad vote crops up.) But to skeptics of the bill—whether moderate or conservative—that argument should sound like a sucker’s bet.

Without a clear vision of the final legislation and an agreement from 50 Republican senators to preserve that vision on the Senate floor regardless of the amendments offered—both things that Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) last week admitted   http://thefederalist.com/2017/07/24/motion-proceed-obamacare-bill-suckers-bet/

Bla  Bla  Bla