Health Care Reforms: So Democrats are You Ready to GO Alone?

In order to get their health care reforms passed it seems that Democrats may be considering making use of a little known political tactic called reconciliation, which would make the need for strong Republican support unnecessary.

It would certainly be a risky move, as it would almost certainly be seen as a hostile act by Republicans. But some top Democrats think it may just be a drastic move worth making.

Reconciliation, which has been used to pass budget measures in the past, requires only a simple majority of 51 votes to pass, something the Democrats should be able to achieve fairly easily.

An unnamed White House source told CNN “If we have to push it through this way, no one is going to remember how messy it was. At the end of the day, they'll remember we got health care reform done. A win is a win."

This all comes as a reaction to Democratic belief that Republicans involved in the negotiations to create a bill that can achieve bi partisan support are not at all serious about getting a deal done any time soon. They are especially concerned about Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa who is a key player in the debate, as he is one of the six members of the Senate Finance Committee, the body most involved in the health care debate.

In fact Grassley warned as recently as this weekend that it may be many months before a bill he could agree to support could be worked out.

"I've said all year that something as big and important as health care legislation should have broad-based support," Grassley said "So far, no one has developed that kind of support, either in Congress or at the White House. That doesn't mean we should quit. It means we should keep working until we can put something together that gets that widespread support."

If the Democrats do decide to go it alone the public insurance option that has been in question for days could be put squarely back on the table. The issue had become cloudy when Obama himself said on Saturday that the "public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform.” On Tuesday Kathleen Sibelius said at a Medicare conference that nothing has changed. She told the audience "We continue to support the public option. That will help lower costs, give American consumers more choice and keep private insurers honest. If people have other ideas about how to accomplish these goals, we'll look at those, too. But the public option is a very good way to do this."