Washington, D.C. —  Senator John Thune today joined Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) in speaking on the Senate floor regarding the Democrat Majority’s plan to pass a health care reform bill through the budget reconciliation process. Senator Thune and his colleagues pointed out the difficulty in utilizing such an approach since the Senate’s reconciliation rules prohibit both provisions not pertaining to reducing the deficit and to the Social Security trust fund from being included in such a bill. A video of Senators Thune, Gregg, and Cornyn discussing the issue on the Senate floor can be found here.

“Congressional Democrats are navigating very dangerous procedural waters in trying to restructure a major portion of our economy through the budget reconciliation process,” said Thune. “Reconciling differences between the House and Senate-passed bills would result in changes to Social Security, which the Senate cannot do through reconciliation.

“Democrats in the House of Representatives are trying to avoid another vote on this controversial legislation, in large part because they know how deeply unpopular it is with the American people. The House is hoping that their disagreements with the Senate bill can be ironed out through reconciliation, but whether or not the Senate is willing or able to make those changes remains to be seen.”