Did Mitch McConnell just hand the "hot potato" back to Paul Ryan?

[kentuck]

Paul Ryan and the House Republicans handed a healthcare bill to the Senate that they knew was a terrible piece of legislation. It was a "hot potato" and they had to hand it to someone. It was something the House could not fix.

So now, it appears that McConnell is going to pitch the "hot potato" back into Ryan's lap. It's called "reconciliation". If the House disagrees with any part of McConnell's Senate Bill, it will go back to McConnell until they can reach agreement.

It appears they have no idea of fixing anything. They are simply going to pass the hot potato back and forth between them, attempting to give the appearance that they are making progress. Their goal is to get by the mid-term elections.

[mucifer]

1. Bills like this one are always reconciled between the house and the senate.

It's the secrecy and the near immediate voting on the bill that's disturbing.

[kentuck]

2. Yes, that is a problem.

But, if they let the Democrats in on the voting, they may actually come up with a healthcare bill.

[WhiteTara]

3. Idoubt they will pass that hot potato back and forth

I think that they will just pass the thing, unread on both sides and the OrangeAnus will sign what ever piece of crap they pass and we can all die. They want that money by god and they are going to get it and more. They can't pass their "tax bill" without this money.

[kentuck]

6. I would agree that they want very much to "fix" it so they can get their tax cuts.

Once the CBO says that it is revenue neutral, they will go ahead with their tax cuts, even though healthcare has not been passed. All they need is the CBO's blessing to get their tax cuts. Also, they will both agree that "Obamacare" needs to be repealed. Other than those two items, healthcare will not be resolved, in my opinion.

[MedusaX]

4. The 'Bill' is just the vehicle being utilized to establish precedent of majority party, closed door

Legislating...

The control over 'operating procedures' afforded to the majority party in House/Senate is easily abused when the same party is the majority in both......

It is a double advantage...
you have enough votes to pass anything your party wants
PLUS
you have complete control over the functionality of the entire legislative process allowed to take place...

It would be more effective to have each party represented in the leadership role...
2 equal leaders of House & 2 of Senate

This would force bi-partisan agreement on the operational procedures without prejudice...
and the majority party still has the capability to determine the success of what is put before them...

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. They are working to pass something much foul.

There is no 11th dimensional chess being played by the Republicans to NOT pass anything IMHO. They promised to repeal/replace ACA and that's what they're aggressively working on because they know that their base will be mad at them if they don't do "something", no matter how bad that "something" is. Of course, once their "mean" bill becomes law and their base may be upset when they find out how bad their "something" really is but it will also kill off a good percentage of their base too, so the Republicans are calculating that they might be ok in the short term.