Kaszycki: Health care reconciliation undermines longstanding government processes, ideals

The Congressional Democrats stand ready to subvert the traditions of the U.S. Congress,… The Congressional Democrats stand ready to subvert the traditions of the U.S. Congress, undermine the checks and balances designed by the Founding Fathers, thwart the rise of tyranny of the majority and force-feed the American public a corrupt, irresponsible and ideologically driven bill that is broadly unpopular.

No, it’s not just another day at the office for Congressional Democrats. They are veering toward a fundamental abuse of the American legislative system that undermines the spirit and history of our Democratic system. To do so, they are ready to use reconciliation, an arcane parliamentary procedure first implemented in 1974, designed to be a seldom-used process that “changes existing laws to conform with tax and spending levels set in a budget resolution.” It does so by permitting the passage of elements with a 51-vote majority, without the possibility of filibuster.

It was not designed to be a stealth backdoor option to avoid a filibuster for sweeping legislative changes, and it has never been used as such.

But that’s exactly what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has determined to do. It’s precisely what our founding fathers feared: In Federalist No. 10, James Madison warned of the dangers of tyranny of the majority, noting that “measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.”

And here we have the superior force of an overbearing congressional majority pushing for a bill that the American people broadly oppose (a recent Associated Press poll found that 68 percent of Americans want the Democrats to work with Republicans instead of crafting a partisan bill), at a time when President Obama’s approval ratings continue to plummet — 44 percent in the latest Rasmussen poll. Apparently already aware of their impending doom, these ideological zealots are determined to do all that they can while they can, no matter the damage to the country’s institutions.

Another voice had some words worth mentioning: “The filibuster serves as a check on power and preserves our limited government … For 200 years we’ve had the right to extended debate. It’s not some procedural gimmick. It’s within the vision of the founding fathers of our country … Some in this chamber want to throw out 214 years of Senate history in the quest for absolute power. They want to do away with the filibuster. They think they’re wiser than our founding fathers. I doubt that that’s true.”

The speaker? Harry Reid back in 2005.

And another:

“The basic makeup of our Senate is at stake. The checks and balances that Americans prize are at stake. The idea of bipartisanship, where you have to come together and can’t just ram everything through because you have a narrow majority, is at stake. The very things we treasure and love about this grand Republic are at stake.”

Those aren’t the words of a Republican. No, those are Sen. Chuck Schumer’s, D-N.Y., from 2005. And they’re all too fitting.

The founding fathers established an extensive system of checks and balances to prevent the country from drifting dramatically in different directions at the whim of a capricious majority. The branches of government check each other, and within the Senate, the filibuster serves as an additional check, preserving its fundamental characteristic as a “select deliberative body whose special job … was to protect the people from policy and value preferences that would be unwise in the long-term,” VD Amar wrote in a 1988 Yale Law Journal.

This unjust usage of reconciliation will irreconcilably damage our system of government. It is an open affront to the longstanding processes that have maintained the United States as a healthy democracy generally immune to improper, ephemeral trends. It will open the legal floodgates for disastrous, ideologically extreme and reckless policies in the years to come.

Perhaps supporters of the Congressional Democrats should consider that they will not have the majority forever. In fact, they might not have it after this year. It’s not right to lay the groundwork for a narrow majority of ideologically extreme people on the other aisle to run wild with disregard to checks and balances.

Should reconciliation happen, this Congress will deserve to be referenced in the same regard as the ignominious Federalists who passed the outrageous Alien and Sedition Act in an attempt to preserve power. That was the last gasp of a dying party. This is the last gasp of a dying congressional majority. May the stench of their foul breath fail to spread.

E-mail Steve at sdk13@pitt.edu.

Click here to read Dave Beitzel’s counterpoint to this column.