Talk about stating the obvious. Judd Gregg said today during an appearance on CNBC that if the House passes the Senate Bill, Obama would not care if the Senate were able to reconcile it.
"They're using reconciliation to pass the great big bill," Gregg said during an appearance on CNBC. "Once they pass the great big bill, I wouldn't be surprised if the White House didn't care if reconciliation passed. I mean, why would they?"
"If you're in the House and you're saying, 'Well, I'm going to vote for this because I'm going to get a reconcilation bill,' I would think twice about that," Gregg said. "First because, procedurally, it's going to be hard to put a reconciliation bill through the Senate. Second because I'm not sure there's going to be a lot of energy to do it, from the president or his people."
"In my opinion, reconciliation is an exercise for buying votes, which, once they have the votes they really don't need it," he said.
Of course this should come as no surprise. When the Senate bill was being turned into a Frankenstein monster, Obama never raised a single objection. Should the House pass the Senate bill (I still doubt they have the votes), Obama will be one signature away from passing health care reform. Why should he risk reconciliation, especially when all he really cares about is getting government control of the health care industry?
Via: Memeorandum
Via: The Hill