March 22 (Bloomberg) -- The Senate parliamentarian dealt Republicans a setback tonight in their effort to derail Democratic health-care overhaul legislation, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
Parliamentarian Alan Frumin issued informal guidance to Republicans that he doesn’t agree with them that a proposed tax on high-end health insurance plans violates Senate budget rules, said Don Stewart, a spokesman for McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. Frumin couldn’t be reached for comment.
Republicans said the so-called Cadillac plan tax has an impact on Social Security trust fund that violates the 1974 Budget Act.
Republicans plan other challenges under a Senate rule that bars use of the budget reconciliation process for provisions that have only an incidental impact on the budget, Stewart said. That includes a separate challenge to the tax on high-end health plans, he said.
At issue are House changes to the most sweeping health-care legislation in four decades, which rewrites the rules governing medical industries and ensures that tens of millions of uninsured Americans will get medical coverage. The House passed the Senate’s version yesterday, which sent that measure to President Barack Obama for his signature into law. The House then approved the companion reconciliation measure of changes that must clear the Senate.
Under the rules, the reconciliation measure can pass with a simple majority of 51 votes. Most legislation in the Senate is subjected to vote-delaying filibusters by opponents, which take 60 votes to overcome.
To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at (-REDACTED-) ;
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