On the recordMarch 11, 2010
That is what the author of reconciliation said a year ago about trying to do health care reform through this process that the majority has decided to use. There are lots of other examples of our colleagues in the Senate on the other side of the aisle--and I could go on and on. The majority leader, Senator Reid, in November of 2009 said: ``I am not using reconciliation.'' Senator Conrad, the chairman of the Budget Committee, said in March 2009 on the Senate floor: I don't believe reconciliation was ever intended for the purpose of writing this kind of substantive reform legislation such as health care reform. Even the President, when he was a Senator at that time, and now President said reconciliation is a bad idea. So we could go on and on and we can find these statements of our colleagues on the other side who, in the past, have expressed opposition, and not just timid, tepid opposition but, I would argue, very aggressive opposition to the use of reconciliation for something this consequential and are now sort of falling back.
