Republicans send the ObamaForcedCare reconciliation bill back to the House - a minor victory but not without significance.

Apparently, the events of this story will represent only a minor barrier but the Republicans have succeeded in sending the Reconciliation bill - an attachment to ObamaForcedCare (OFC) passed on Dark Sunday, March 21, 2010, back to the House of Representatives. There appears to be claims of savings due to OFC that are not accurate or should not be in this reconciliation action. What follows is a story from Open Congress. Understand this, the OFC can be defeated over a period of time. Beginning after the November elections and assuming the eventual Congressional assumption to power of the GOP, conservative politicians can choose to defund OFC, effectively stopping this action. Secondly, the GOP will have to legislatively alter the sordid tax burden that has been embedded in this bill opening opportunity for business, especially small small business, to think about hiring again. And finally, with a Congressional majority in both houses and a Republican President in place, the bill can be revised (radically so) to make it acceptable to certain Constitutional standards while continuing to address some of the issues within the bill that needed to be addressed -- jds

Health Care Reconciliation Bill Must Go Back to the House by Donny Shaw March 25, 2010

The Senate stayed in session late into the night on Wednesday, voting over and over to reject dilatory Republican amendments to the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act and moving closer to a final vote on passage. The bill proposes a number of "fixes" to the new health care law, like increasing subsidies for helping people buy insurance and lowering tax penalties on those who don't, and includes unrelated legislation to reform the student loan industry. A full summary of the reconciliation bill can be read here.

By the time the Senate adjourned at 2:50 a.m. ET on Thursday morning, they had rejected 29 Republican amendments to the bill on everything from repealing the new health care bill to undoing Washington D.C.'s gay marriage law. But as it turns out, the situation the Democrats were working all night on Wednesday to avoid, having to send the bill back to the House for another vote, is unavoidable. This AP is reporting that the GOP has succesfully altered the bill by finding violations in the bill under the Byrd Rule.

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