President Obama’s budget director said the White House would consider using a Senate procedural tactic so that only 50 votes would be rquired to pass major healthcare and energy reforms.
Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration would prefer not to use the budget reconciliation process to push through its package.
But he added: “We have to keep everything on the table. We want to get these…. important things done this year.” Orszag called healthcare in particular “the key to our fiscal future.”Orszag made the comments on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
That’s a clear message to the Republicans that they aren’t going to use the filibuster to stop Obama’s top priorities. If they want to have any influence over the health and energy reforms, they’re going to have to work on the legislation in committee. There is no possibility of stopping the bills from passing because, if the bills are threatened, Obama will move them into the budget reconciliation process. That move won’t be popular even among many Democrats in the Senate, but it’s now up to the Republicans whether it happens or not.
