As Senate Pres, could Joe Biden make the 51-vote 'Reconciliation' route through the Senate

[ProgressiveEconomist]

much more viable for the White House legislative agenda, Senate Parliamentarian be damned?

Because a "Byrd Rule" GD thread with this post ( http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7525011 ) is sinking fast, I decided to give it its own thread.

Back in the 60s. Hubert Humphrey apparently figured out how to get around the powerful Senate Parliamentarian, who could throw up roadblocks against passing Obama's agenda through the Senate under Reconciliation, which cannot fe filibustered. Could Biden follow Humphrey's example this year, allowing the White House to bypass Republican abuse of the filibuster?

WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?

Months ago, Timothy Noah at Slate provided a brief history of the Parliamentarian's job, pointing out that during the past 28 years, there have been just two people who've held it, as a kind of tag team. Each has served two terms during that period:

Allen Frumin (1987-95 and 2001-present) took over from his former boss Robert Dove (1981-87 and 1995-2001) after Democrats retook the Senate in 1986. Strangely, Trent Lott fired Dove in 2001, but replaced him with Frumin, presumably because the job is so specialized that the number of potential appointees is extremely small.

From http://www.slate.com/id/2227092 :

"Under reconciliation's Byrd rule, named for the ailing nonagenarian senator who devised it (Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., harbors a lifelong passion for procedural arcana), the Senate may not consider under reconciliation rules any bill, amendment, or conference report that does not relate directly to the budget. If, for instance, a reconciliation bill would affect government spending or tax revenues, but only in a way that's incidental to the bill's true purpose, it can be ruled in violation of the Byrd rule. ... A nice irony pointed out by Brian Beutler on Talking Points Memo is that in order to pass muster for reconciliation, health reform might need not only to include the controversial public option (which political sharpies inside the White House and out want to discard) but to expand and strengthen existing public-option proposals sufficiently to establish that health reform really would reduce spending. ...

The title 'Senate parliamentarian' is so distinguished that one might easily assume it dates back to the 18 th century. In fact, the post was created in 1935 in revolt against (FDR's 'Veep') John Nance Garner, (who rendered) as president of the Senate questionable parliamentary rulings. Only three people held the post before Frumin and Dove's 28-year do-si-do. According to Dove, Vice President Hubert Humphrey routinely ignored his parliamentarian's advice. Might Vice President Joe Biden do the same with health care? Dove sees it as a "more plausible" prospect with Biden than it might be with other vice presidents because Biden (like Humphrey) is a former senator who can draw on personal familiarity with Senate procedure. He's also (I would add) kind of a know-it-all, an annoying quality in many contexts but a potentially useful one here.

I had no idea, before Dove told me, that it was even possible for Biden to overrule his parliamentarian in interpreting the Byrd rule. Perhaps all this speculative fretting about who Alan Frumin is and what he might do is beside the point. If the Senate parliamentarian can't be bribed or threatened, then perhaps, if he makes one or more inconvenient procedural calls, Democrats should consider the option of simply ignoring him. ..."

[OHdem10]

1. It appears from reports this AM on MSNBC. The Bill will be broken

up and passed in Increments. For Example: Close Donut Hole
in Medicare, Pre-existing conditions , Cannot cut your insurance
if you get ill. Then later pass another portion. and on and on.

They are calling it a scaled back Bill. It is my understanding
that the Pres. has suggested something like this. What I
described earlier came from the House of Representatives.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

2. That's a tactic for one bill, but Noah's observation is much bigger--strategy for many bills

For example, a second stimulus bill could have another middle-class payroll tax refund as its centerpiece, but include many other more creative elements , and bypass the possibility of a filibuster.

BTW, on the healcare bill: The link in the OP shows how reconciliation could be used to remove elements House members don't like from the already-passed Senate bill, even BEFORE the House votes on the Senate version of the bill.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

3. Thank you, ananymous recommender