Chris Bowers is confused about what is going to happen next in the Health Care D. (debate, debacle, demand, damn I think we already won).
He suggest that the Nuclear Option is on the table. That is not the case. To understand why, it is important to understand how bills become law in the House and Senate.
In the House, there is a Rules Committee. The Rules Committee creates a rule for any contested bill that goes to the floor. This does not include, for example, the bills naming Post Offices. These bills can be open or closed. A open rule means that anyone can offer an amendment. A closed rule says that no one or only the identified parties may offer amendments. In any case, amendments have to be related to the bill in the House. In the Senate....
In the Senate the Rules Committee determines the office space allocation and also assigns parking spaces. Now, anyone who works in an office knows this does actually matter, But Not Much.
Anyone can offer an amendment on the floor about anything in the Senate. In fact, a amendment could be offered to strike one entire bill and replace it with a motion liking puppies. There are no content rules.
Cloture was invented by the first Master of the Senate Wilson. Before that, there was no way to cut off debate. Senators could speak until one knee touched the floor. There was no force for quorum calls.
Using unanimous consent to create an effective process for agreeing on rules for bringing a bill to the floor was the innovation of LBJ. That is why we have a distinct cloture vote and "up or down" vote. The Senate was a dragon, and LBJ tamed that great dragon as much as anyone but Wilson before him. (And Wilson did not get his treaty but LBJ did get Civil Rights.)
The nuclear option is not reconciliation. Reconciliation is the ability to pass a matter on a simply majority vote on the basis of a ruling by the parliamentarian that the matter is suitable for such a vote. There are issues about budget neutrality, for example.
The nuclear option goes like this:
- There is a filibuster.
- Someone calls for a vote to vote.
- It is a tie.
- The Vice President votes to break the tie.
- Someone FOR the bill calls the vote.
- The presiding officer then counts the votes.
- Again, a tie.
- Again VP breaks the tie.
So the Nuclear Option requires a complete bastard as VP who is willing the throw two centuries of process development into the garbage to get an immediate result. It requires someone with little respect for process, or even rule of law. It requires a VP with no concern for the future, with nothing but a passion for power. It requires, to be blunt, Dick Cheney.
RECONCILIATION IS NOT THE NUCLEAR OPTION. ONE FOLLOWS RULE OF LAW. ONE PERVERTS THE RULE OF LAW IN ITS VERY MAKING.
The Constitution says only that the Congress makes it own rules. So under the nuclear option There Are No Rules. Forget the Rules Committee in the House. Forget cloture. Go back to fist fights on the floor. There would be no rules under the Nuclear Option. "Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member." That is almost the only rule about internal management. (VP votes on SN ties, House has a leader, meet 1st Monday in Dec. That's about it.) The day after the Nuclear Option, what then? 2/3 of one party vote to expel the members of the other, one by one?
Oh, and the other important point. In the House, it all happens in Committee. What hits the floor will be passed. It is like a scripted play.
In the Senate, all that matters is on the floor. All the Baucus kabuki is empty theater. Just getting the thing out of Committee is what mattered. That a vote occurred is the real victory. Clinton never got the bill out of all the Senate committees. Finance killed Clinton Health Care and paid no political price. He handed the House to the Republicans to serve his corporate masters. That the vote happened meant he was unable to kill health care reform. Think on that. I think we have won. Today. (Not that Reid cannot snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.)
House floor: scripted play, World Wrestling Federation
Senate floor: football circa 1920, ill-planned military ambush
Reconciliation: process followed, rule of law validated
Nuclear option: destroys everything, poisons the Chamber - possibly forever
Let us not confuse these things.