Obama's Reconciliation Threat

I will not claim to be the expert on the federal congressional reconciliation process but from where I sit either Obama has been making empty threats or what he is actually doing is being reported very badly. Let me check the story as I have heard it...

Most of us want something like a universal health-care plan or at the very least some kind of single-payer system. Check!

But as the Grand Obstructionist Party stands in our way we aren't likely to get what we want any time soon or without losing most of what we want along the way. Check!

So Obama has supposedly been citing the zero support he received for the bailout plan and threatening the Grand Obstructionist Party with going around them via the reconciliation process. Check!

The rub is that the reconciliation process is really not intended for anything like this maneuver and Obama is probably fucked on it. I suppose it makes good headlines to report things like that even when they make no sense whatever. Wiki informs me that "President Clinton wanted to use reconciliation to pass his health care plan, but Senator Robert Byrd insisted that the health care plan was out of bounds for a process that is theoretically about budgets." And that's just in case you wondered how in bed with the Clintons Obama really happens to be.

Or maybe I just really don't know my shit and should just shut my trap.