The New York Times reports this morning that President Obama is prepared to go ahead and propose health care legislation that would use what is known as reconciliation, which means the bill would simply need 51, and not a filibuster proof 60 votes, to pass the U.S. Senate.
Such a move has been called for by many Democrats, frustrated by their pursuits of trying to pick off Republicans or conservative Democrats to get that elusive 60th vote, which led to the embarrassing pork laden parts of legislation late last year that appeared to most as flat out bribes to get Louisiana's Mary Landreiu and Nebraska's Ben Nelson to come to the table.
But even after all the gnashing of teeth after Scott Brown's upset victory in Massachusetts last month, the fact of the matter is the Democrats still have 59 votes in the Senate, yet seem to be acting like they have 49. Reconciliation could be the way to pass a bill and have everyone move on with their lives.
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2010.