Chart: A history of reconciliation

For those of you who haven’t seen it, the New York Times on Sunday published a chart created by Congressional scholars showing the history of reconciliation. The chart shows a brief summary of every bill that has been passed via reconciliation, and there’s a very wide range of circumstances it’s been used for. In the accompanying text, the authors sum things up:

Reconciliation was intended to be a narrow procedure to bring revenues and spending into conformity with the levels set in the annual budget resolution. But it quickly became much more. The 22 reconciliation bills so far passed by Congress (three of which were vetoed by President Bill Clinton) have included all manner of budgetary and policy measures: deficit reductions and increases; social policy bills like welfare reform; major changes in Medicare and Medicaid; large tax cuts; and small adjustments in existing law. Neither party has been shy about using this process to avoid dilatory tactics in the Senate; Republicans have in fact been more willing to do so than Democrats.

See the whole thing here.

By the way, a quick note for those of you who would love to stop hearing about reconciliation: So would I, but the fact is, this is the most important subject in national news right now. Let’s hope the Democrats will get this thing done so I can stop writing about it.