Obamacare was not passed using budget reconciliation

I remember this distinctly. Technically the headline is correct, yet reconciliation was critical to the passage of the ACA.

MA elected Scott Brown to fill Ted Kennedy's seat in a special election. The history behind this special election is very interesting from a political standpoint. You can read about it here: http://legacy.wbur.org/2013/01/20/senate-vacancy-law. I think this is a fascinating example of US politics.

Brown broke the supermajority. He wouldn't vote for the budgetary bill that would be required to fund the healthcare law, so they used reconciliation instead. It's a purely semantic argument to claim that Obamacare wasn't passed using reconciliation. I mean, it's technically right but they couldn't have funded it without reconciliation and it would have been a complete disaster. It's a shame Kennedy passed away when he did because his vacancy was a huge roadblock that really hindered the ACA.

The story of the MA special election and it's impact on Obamacare is not often told, and I think that is a shame.

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