Kent Conrad Breaks Promise, Opens The Door For Health Care To Pass Through Reconciliation

Last year Senator Kent Conrad was quoted by the Wall Street Journal saying this in opposition to using the reconciliation process in the Senate, which bypasses the 60 vote cloture requirement, to pass a health care bill:

“I’ve been as clear as I can be publicly and privately that I don’t think reconciliation is the right way to write fundamental reform legislation,” Mr. Conrad said. “It wasn’t designed for that purpose.”

After the Jounal ran that quote, Conrad wrote a indignant letter to the publication saying that he is adamantly opposed to using reconciliation to pass health care legislation and would not allow it to happen:

I have opposed, both publicly and privately, using reconciliation for anything other than its intended purpose, which is to reduce deficits. That is why every year my budgets include a rule allowing reconciliation to be used for deficit reduction only, something the Republican majority never did. The reconciliation instruction for health reform and education included in this year’s plan requires deficit reduction. …
In the end, I believe reconciliation will not be used for health reform. Democrats deliberately delayed activation of the reconciliation instruction until after Oct. 15, to give Congress time to enact health reform through the regular order. I am committed to joining that effort and enacting health reform with broad bipartisan support.

But now that the government health care take over has anything but bipartisan support, and is at risk of being undone by Massachusetts voters electing a Republican to the Senate to replace Ted Kennedy?
Well, suddenly Senator Conrad doesn’t care so much about his past promises about reconciliation:

The Senate Budget Committee Chairman said Wednesday he’s willing to use special rules to force a final healthcare bill through with a simple majority vote.
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) made clear his openness to applying budget reconciliation to healthcare, a position he opposed prior to this week’s special election in Massachusetts, is contingent on the content of the bill.

Senator Conrad is proving himself to be about as reliable in his promises on health care as he’s reliable in his promises about “deficit reduction.” Meaning that he usually says one thing and then does another.