That's actually how Democrats passed major parts of the ACA in 2010, and it's how Republicans passed some of the Bush-era tax cuts a decade earlier. The Senate is not permitted to filibuster the budget resolutions, explains the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Byrd Rule is largely what keeps policymakers from just passing an entire Obamacare repeal/replace bill under reconciliation and calling it a day. In early 2016, Republicans passed a test run of a bill via reconciliation that got all the way to Obama's desk. So, before Republicans even introduced their Obamacare replacement bill this week, reconciliation was shaping what they put in it — and what they left out.

Source: Washington Post March 09, 2017 15:48 UTC