[lbo-talk] How to make the Senate a majority rule institution in one day

Joseph Catron jncatron at gmail.com
Thu Jan 21 10:47:28 PST 2010


On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 1:26 PM, Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> wrote:

Many other well meaning people think we could pass major legislation by
> using the reconciliation process. But that is limited to expanding or
> contracting existing programs. You can't create new ones.
>

Could you expand on this? How tightly-defined are "programs" for our purposes here? I can think of few aspects of our existence in which the federal budget does not have a finger - certainly not health care! Could any of the proposals under consideration not be cast as "expansions or contractions" of the endless web of existing subsidies and regulations?

-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."



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