Senate Dem Budget Rules Include Reconciliation Language

The Dems have apparently decided to do away with the chance of a filibuster by using reconciliation to pass every controversial bill that will come up the rest of this year:

Senate Democrats have written their budget resolution so they can pass jobs legislation using reconciliation, the controversial process used last month to move healthcare reform.

The resolution does not specify what specific jobs measures could be covered, and does not explicitly allow for the use of reconciliation rules to pass energy legislation or the extension of George W. Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and a number of other Democrats on Tuesday, however, said the fast-track process could be used to move tax cuts, energy legislation and more later this year.
“There are many different areas it could be used,” Cardin said.

When Democrats approved a budget resolution last year, it specified that the rules could be used for healthcare and student loan legislation.

Democrats did just that in March to avoid a Republican filibuster. That has boosted their confidence to use the procedure on other issues, Cardin said.

“We need to have the ability to move forward on underlying important bills by majority vote, and the rules of the Senate permit you to do that [on bills] that reduce the deficit consistent with the budget resolution,” he said.

Reconciliation instructions allow legislation that cuts deficits to move through the Senate with a simple majority by preventing procedural objections that take 60 votes to overcome.

For reconciliation to work, Democrats in both chambers would need to adopt a fiscal 2011 budget resolution containing the key language.

The Democrats seem to forget that someday, and maybe sooner than they realize, they will not have the majority in the Senate. The rules they are so willingly using to pass their leftist agenda may well come back when the GOP wants to undo Obamacare or other things they passed, not to mention passing their own conservative programs.

I can already hear the Dems screaming....