Balance of Power

At her press conference this morning, Pelosi said it’s the only way to get a final health care package that includes a public health plan option. Most Democrats believe that’s essential to trigger enough changes in the broader system to cover uninsured people, but Republicans see it as a step toward government-run health care.

“I believe that it’s absolutely essential that we come out of this year with a substantial health care reform — substantial health care reform legislation. I believe that that is best served by having reconciliation in the package,” Pelosi said.

As for Republican warnings that reconciliation would be a partisan move that would undermine cooperation on anything else, Pelosi’s view is, bring it on. “Some of these same people on the Republican side didn’t have a problem with it — and we have their quotes — when President Bush wanted to put forth his tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the America,” she said.

Sure enough, House Democrats do have those quotes, thanks to a helpful fact sheet assembled yesterday by the office of House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland. It includes a list of all the times that Republicans used budget reconciliation during their dozen years in the majority.

Senate Democratic centrists say that would be a bad idea, a poke in the eye of Republicans that would be sure to haunt the Democrats later. Senate Democratic leaders think reconciliation should only be used as a last resort. And Obama administration officials, including Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag yesterday, say it should be a last resort, but they won’t rule it out.

That’s pretty much how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada handled the question at a press briefing this afternoon. “We are going to do health care. I think that says it all,” Reid said. He said Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, who opposes using reconciliation, “should have a chance to do what he can on health care on a bipartisan basis,” but warned that “we’re taking nothing off the table.”

It’s the latest example of the House-Senate wars that President Obama will have to mediate. But Pelosi can be confident of one thing: As long as former House Democrat Rahm Emanuel is the White House chief of staff, the administration isn’t about to insist on letting Republicans filibuster anything.