The media coverage of the health care reform debate has been quite frustrating because the coverage has not covered the substance of the debate. It’s been the typical “on one hand, on the other hand” type of coverage which has allowed Republicans to get away with telling outrageous lies about health care reform (death panels!!!!). I’ve always wondered why “Republicans are lying to you” is not a media story.
The poor media coverage of the hcr debate is one reason I was so shocked this morning when listening to NPR. They were actually informing people about the reconciliation process and how it has been used in the past. They started the story with what Republicans have been saying about reconciliation:
Not surprisingly, that has Republicans crying foul. Budget reconciliation, Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) told reporters Tuesday, “was never designed for a large, comprehensive piece of legislation such as health care, as you all know. It’s a budget exercise, and that’s why some refer to it as the ‘nuclear option.'”
“The use of expedited reconciliation process to push through more dramatic changes to a health care bill of such size, scope and magnitude is unprecedented,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) wrote in a letter to President Obama on Monday, urging him to renounce the possibility of trying to pass a bill using the procedure.
BTW, I love that wording “some refer to it as the nuclear option.” Actually, Republicans coined the term the “nuclear option” to describe abolition of the filibuster. Anyway, Republicans count on you and the media to have short memories and not to call them on what they said and did just a few years ago. So, is the use of reconciliation unprecedented?
But health care and reconciliation actually have a lengthy history. “In fact, the way in which virtually all of health reform, with very, very limited exceptions, has happened over the past 30 years has been the reconciliation process,” says Sara Rosenbaum, who chairs the Department of Health Policy at George Washington University.
NPR then turns the screws a little tighter (referring to COBRA):
“The correct name is continuation benefits. And the only reason it’s called COBRA is because it was contained in the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985; and that is how we came up with the name COBRA,” she says.
The NPR lists other important health care legislation passed by like Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), CHIP and changes to Medicare (such as adding a hospice benefit).
Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (first Bush tax cuts)
Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (second Bush tax cuts)
Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (Medicare, Medicaid, student loans, assistance for needy families)
Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 (tax cuts)
College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (student aid, loan forgiveness)