Accidental Blogger

The Wall Street Journal reports that there is some discussion among Senate Democrats of making health-care reform a two-part bill.  Through "budget reconciliation," certain legislation can get passed with 51 votes instead of the 60 that are ordinarily required because of the filibuster.  Reconciliation is a bizarre exception to the norm of the filibuster, but hey, when in Rome.

Ezra Klein thinks this is awful.  I'm not sure why Ezra Klein, an idiot blogger my age who has no expertise in anything other than blogging, counts as a credible voice on anything, but he's with the Washington Post now, so he must be credible, right?  As far as I can tell, his point is that this is bad because it will be "controversial" with conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans.  You know, the people who would make this move unnecessary if they were on board in the first place.  To steal a line from Ezra: "But I might well be missing something here."  (One of us surely is.)

Jack Balkin says this is something like a constitutional moment.  Jack agrees this will anger moderate Republicans like Olympia Snowe by making them less powerful, but he thinks this is a good thing.  Anything that weakens the filibuster is a good thing, basically. 

If you ask me — and since I'm the one blogging this post, I'll act like you did — regular use of a the filibuster is a bad thing.  It's unconstitutional in spirit and theory, although no court will ever decide this.  The phantom filibuster is particularly egregious and is not, pace Ezra, "40 senators [talking] about cheese whiz until everyone else heads home for the night."  Health care highlights this well.  Look, most people in this country want reform.  The President wants reform.  Most Senators want reform.  This is a hugely important issue that will have real consequences for the lives of many real people.  And it's unclear if anything will be accomplished because the Democrats might not be able to get the 60 votes they need to pass legislation that requires 51 votes to pass.  I mean, seriously, COME ON.  If this angers the mighty Olympia Snowe, who I'm pretty sure I have (to my increasing regret) previously defended on this blog, good.  She shouldn't be dictating policy for this country.