The expression The Budget Reconciliation Process (BRP) has been shot around as a way to get important health care and climate stuff passed. What is BPR?
The meat of it is this:
"Created in a budget resolution in 1974 as part of the congressional budget process...First used in 1980 this process was used at the end of a fiscal year to enact legislation to fine tune revenue and spending levels through legislation that could not be filibustered in the Senate." (emphasis mine)
The point of it is this, whenever passing budget stuff, in order to move the legislation along quickly, 60 votes aren't needed to end debate. It comes up for a straight vote only needing 51 votes to pass.
Why is this important? The dems can use anything that might create revenue or spend money as a way to attach it onto this type of bill. Thus, controversial stuff like health care reform, global warming reform, or anything that deals with money, can be used in this process.
It is a shitty process but for those of you not up to date, the repubs filibuster anything they don't like so that it NEVER gets voted on.
The repubs are up in arms right now saying "This is undemocratic!" But their short term memories only go back about a year because they used this several times to get things passed when they were in charge.
I say go for it and forget about the repubs whining about being left out. The country elected someone else to drive for a while.
