Reply #25: They are talking about a patch to make the Senate bill acceptable to the House [View All]

[Orangepeel]

Right or wrong, the Senate rules are that reconciliation is for resolving budget type issues.

I don't remember myself so I don't know about the validity, but wikipedia says that Clinton wanted to use reconciliation to pass his health care plan and the Senate (specifically Byrd) wouldn't let him.

The Byrd Rule (described below) was adopted in 1985 and amended in 1990. Its main effect is that reconciliation cannot be used for provisions that would increase the deficit beyond 10 years after the reconciliation measure.

"Until 1996, reconciliation was limited to deficit reduction, but in 1996 the Senate's Republican majority adopted a precedent to apply reconciliation to any legislation affecting the budget, even legislation that would increase the deficit."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconciliation_(United_States_Congress)#Process