This is one helluva letter. Reid, to McConnell, in part:
“While Republicans were distorting the facts in the health care debate and inflicting delay after needless delay, millions of Americans have continued to suffer as they struggle to afford to stay healthy, stay out of bankruptcy and stay in their homes. Thousands of Americans lose their health care every day, and tens of thousands of the uninsured have lost their lives since this debate began.”
“Many Republicans now are demanding that we simply ignore the progress we’ve made, the extensive debate and negotiations we’ve held, the amendments we’ve added (including more than 100 from Republicans) and the votes of a supermajority in favor of a bill whose contents the American people unambiguously support. We will not. We will finish the job.”
“As you know, the vast majority of bills developed through reconciliation were passed by Republican Congresses and signed into law by Republican Presidents – including President Bush’s massive, budget-busting tax breaks for multi-millionaires. Given this history, one might conclude that Republicans believe a majority vote is sufficient to increase the deficit and benefit the super-rich, but not to reduce the deficit and benefit the middle class. Alternatively, perhaps Republicans believe a majority vote is appropriate only when Republicans are in the majority. Either way, we disagree.”
It would be lovely to think this signals the end to the myth of Dems thinking there's a hope of bipartisanship with this Republican crowd. But it also points up something we've been talking about here since Chuck Schumer raised the possibility of using reconcilation to pass healthcare reform way back last summer--the best way to break Republican--and ConservaDem--obstruction is to prove that you are willing to bypass them to get the job done. Had the reconciliation trigger been pulled way back when, some of the ensuing mess might have been avoided.
DanK Is Back talks about this more in his diary.
As a bonus, here's some reconciliation eye candy from the Dems, a reconciliation primer.