Biden Ascendant
Since becoming Vice President, Joe Biden has been scrutinized, imitated, impersonated, satired, and analyzed from every possible perspective by the media and by talking heads of both parties. Of all the verbs that fit into the list of things done to the VP most often, at the top of the list is probably; underrated. Throughout history, vice presidents are often ascribed the level of importance approaching that of a third nipple. Despite cliches like “heartbeat away from the presidency,” most people do not think the VP will ever have the opportunity to do anything important.
To many liberals, Dick Cheney is easily the most despised VP of at the very least, the last 40 years. The more his activities as Vice President become known, the more reviled and despised he becomes among progressives. He is believed to have been the most fervent advocate of torturing Al-Queda members and for circumventing various portions of the U.S. Bill of Rights in his bid to extract intelligence via electronic surveillance. He is also notorious for his efforts to elevate the power and prestige of the executive branch at the expense of the other branches. It begs the question, what impact can the Vice President have if he wears a proverbial white hat instead of a black one?
The Health Care Summit from last week proved that Republicans would not support ANY kind of reform of the U.S. health care system whether bi-partisan or not. Progressives in the United States have tried to make the case for quite some time that Democrats were given a mandate in November 2008 to get health care reform done and that if Republicans choose not to help, that Democrats should use whatever political means at their disposal to get it done. Since both chambers of Congress have already passed comprehensive health care reform packages (HCR), the only thing that remains is for the difference between the two bills to be reconciled. The procedure called “reconciliation” has been used for this purpose by both political parties but Republicans have used it twice as often as Democrats. Faced with the prospect of a major defeat after risking EVERYTHING to defeat Obama’s reform effort, Republicans have not only tried every trick in the books to prevent reform from even being voted on but now are using all of their influence in an attempt to convince the public that using reconciliation to pass HCR would not be proper.
The thing is, the prospects for forcing through HCR using reconciliation boils down to the minutia of Parliamentary procedures with the Congress. Essentially, a proposal must be made to pass amendments that reconcile the two versions of the bill. The Parliamentarian will make a recommendation to either accept or reject the amendments. The President of the Senate makes the final determination as to the acceptability of the amendments and if he rules positively, a vote is taken based on a simple majority. The President of the Senate becomes the most important figure in the reconciliation process, therefore it is on his shoulders that the future of Health Care Reform in America rests. AND as you probably already know, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is the President of the Senate.
For all the jokes that have been told about the Vice President, both good-humored and vituperative, few would have imagined that the proverbial ball would eventually end up entirely in his court. One may think that his hands would be tied somewhat but this is why the choice of running-mate is so important. All we have to do now is wait and watch. It should be interesting viewing for those of us who follow politics.
Assuming that the reconciliation process will be successful there is only one thing missing and I want to offer it as a suggestion to the President, Speaker, and Senate Majority Leader. If you guys want to make McConnell’s, Boeher’s, and Cantor’s heads simultaneously explode, then just before the final vote name Joe Biden,
“Reconciliation CZAR!“
Man oh man, would that ever baste their noodles.
