Wednesday, December 17, 2014

How Obamacare Passed

If you haven't heard the story of how Obamacare passed, it's very interesting.  I wouldn't be surprised if it's turned into an episode of 24 or House of Cards eventually.  Here we go...

1.  The Democrats in the House of Representatives were struggling to pass their version of the Affordable Care Act. 

2.  All revenue bills must originate from the House -- not the Senate.  

3.  The Senate took a separate bill that passed the House -- HR3590, a military housing bill -- and gutted it entirely until it became the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act", also known as Obamacare.

4.  At this point, the Senate had 60 Democrats which was exactly enough to pass Obamacare.  It passed with exactly 60 votes.

5.  Ted Kennedy, a Democrat Senator for Wisconsin, died and was replaced by newly elected Republican Scott Brown.

6.  The Democrats new that if the House made any changes to the bill, it wouldn't pass on the next required vote in the Senate because they only had 59 instead of the necessary 60.

7.  The Democrat controlled House and Senate made a deal:  If the House will pass Obamacare without any changes, then the Senate will pass a new bill from the House with amendments to Obamacare without any changes.  This second bill from the House was called the "Reconciliation Act of 2010".

8.  So the House passed both Obamacare (without any changes) and the Reconciliation Act.

9.  The Senate then declared they were going to use the "reconciliation rule" to pass the Reconciliation Act because this allows bills to pass with only 51 votes instead of 60.  This rule is intended for quick changes in taxes, spending, or debt.

10.  The Affordable Care Act and Reconciliation Act were signed into law. 


So what is wrong with this process?  Firstly, the Affordable Care Act, with many revenue related items in it, clearly originated from the Senate.  It's like a 5th grader wrote a homework assignment on the Civil War, then his high school sibling re-wrote the entire thing for him.  It's called cheating. 

Secondly, the "reconciliation rule" was never intended to be used for items as huge as the Affordable Care Act.  It's meant for quick, minor changes to taxes, spending, or debt. 

And finally, our system of government is specifically designed to force compromise.  It is supposed to be impossible to get bills to pass without some level of bipartisanship.  If all else fails, the traditional filibuster can be used to not allow a bill to even be voted on.  The Democrats did what they had to do to get this unpopular bill to pass, and no one seems to care that they just made the rules up as they went along.  Is anyone surprised?

Go check out the collection of polls at Real Clear Politics to see just how unpopular this bill is.