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Is Reconciliation an Act of Violence?

Facing humungous challenges to passing strong health care reform this year, Democrats are starting to talk up the idea of reconciliation again. Republicans--shock--don’t like the idea. This March, Senator Judd Gregg compared reconciliation with “running over the minority, putting them in cement, and throwing them in the Chicago River.” But is the Senate process really that brutal? A few months back, Thomas Mann, Norm Ornstein, and Molly Reynolds wrote a piece for us (with a handy graph!) describing each instance of reconciliation since 1980. It’s a really useful historical corrective. You can read it here.