Reconciliation
It was OK to use reconciliation to force fiscally irresponsible tax cuts onto the nation with Bush in office:
During the administration of President George W. Bush, Congress used reconciliation to enact three major tax cuts, each of which was predicted by the Congressional Budget Office to substantially increase federal deficits.[4] These tax cuts were set to lapse after 10 years to satisfy the Byrd Rule.
But to help increase the availability of Health Care to all, the Conservatives are against it. That’s because Conservatives don’t actually care about anybody outside their immediate family, it seems. Typical. You never hear of Conservatives turning down the government run Medicare they receive, nor do you hear Conservatives denouncing Social Security and Medicaid or Medicare if it benefits themselves or their children. It is only when it benefits “others”. Conservatives offer no solutions to actually provide Health Care to everyone, just complaints that somehow they may not have as much money if everyone is given access to the same benefits in society. Clearly, they haven’t been walking too many miles in another’s shoes.
When the Right forced their tax cuts that disproportionately benefited the wealthiest (i.e. not percentage of rate cut, but actual affect on people’s lives in cut services and who got the money) and drove us into deficit spending again, they used reconciliation. And it was clear at the time that they were forcing us into fiscal trouble:
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimate that H.R. 1836 would decrease governmental receipts by $70 billion in 2001, by $512 billion over the 2001-2006 period, and by $1.26 trillion over the 2001-2011 period. In addition, the act would increase direct spending by $4 billion in 2001, by $40 billion over the 2001-2006 period, and by $92 billion over the 2001-2011 period. H.R. 1836 would reduce projected total surpluses by approximately $1.35 trillion over the 2001-2011 period. Of this total, $2.9 billion would be off-budget and not subject to pay-as-you-go procedures.
