A Primer on Reconciliation

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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September 29, 2009

A Primer on Reconciliation

Though the White House clearly prefers to pass a health care reform bill with the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster in the Senate, a bill could also be passed by just 51 votes using budget reconciliation.

First Read gives an excellent "stripped-down, dumbed-down, Cliff Notes-like explanation of what reconciliation is, what hurdles opponents can place before it, and how it might be handled on the floor should Democrats decide to use it."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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September 29, 2009