Capitol Hill Reports - President's Health Care Reform Agenda, Cap-and-Trade Initiative on Life Support

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President's Health Care Reform Agenda, Cap-and-Trade Initiative on Life Support
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
9:30 PM

President Obama's aggressive plan to overhaul the nation's health care system and implement a cap-and-trade program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions was placed on life support today after Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) unveiled his fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget mark that excludes so-called "reconciliation" protections for the two initiatives. Reconciliation essentially fast-tracks designated legislation by preventing a filibuster in the Senate, and thereby paving the way for only a simple majority vote in both chambers to pass the legislation. Without reconciliation protections, the two initiatives would need 60 votes for passage in the Senate -- an unlikely outcome.

Adding another hurdle, the Conrad budget requires the relevant committees that draft health care reform and cap-and-trade legislation to fully offset the costs of the bills.

The two White House proposals have not been declared dead, however, since House Democratic leaders included reconciliation language in their chamber's budget blueprint. The move will preserve Congress' option to use reconciliation by punting the decision to a House-Senate conference tasked with drafting a final budget resolution later this spring.

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"We might as well be the House of Representatives," Senate Budget Ranking Member Judd Gregg (R-NH) said of House Democrats' reconciliation push, going on to assert that the Senate is essentially allowing the other body to write its rules.

"With respect to reconciliation, I happen to agree with the gentleman," Conrad said following Gregg's remarks, adding that the procedure should be used only for deficit reduction.

Unlike the president's ten-year outlook on his proposed fiscal policy, the House and Senate budgets span only five years, a discrepancy that Republicans wasted no time pointing out.

After calling the Conrad mark a "hide-and-seek budget," Gregg said that "we know where the last five years are going... Not very pretty."

House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-SC) said that the five-year budget window is not unusual. "In fact, it’s the customary time-frame for budgeting," Spratt contended.

House Budget Resolution

Chairman's Mark (Text)

Chairman's Mark (Charts)

Chairman's Mark (Summary)

Senate Budget Resolution

Chairman's Mark (Text)

Chairman's Mark (Overview)

Chairman's Mark (Charts)

Chairman's Mark (Summary)

In light of the Congressional Budget Office's projection that the president's budget request would result in an additional $2.3 trillion in cumulative deficits over the next ten years compared to the White House's estimate, Conrad decided to not accommodate an extension of the president's "Making Work Pay" tax cuts that were enacted under the economic recovery bill, and left out any assumption that Congress would provide the financial sector additional bailout funding. (Obama has requested a $250 billion contingent reserve for further efforts to stabilize the financial system.)

"We had to do this to get the deficit on a downward trajectory," Conrad said during today's markup.

The House and Senate Budget panels are expected to approve their respective budgets by week's end, clearing the way for expected floor consideration in both chambers next week.