Pelosi suggests maneuver to pass healthcare overhaul

Laying out a possible path to approving healthcare legislation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said Wednesday that the House should pass the Senate's version and then use a process known as "budget reconciliation" to make the changes some lawmakers are demanding. The politically fraught strategy might allow Democrats to salvage a version of the overhaul that senior lawmakers pushed through the House and Senate late last year. Because budget reconciliation requires only a simple majority in the Senate, it could enable Democrats to circumvent a threatened GOP filibuster. "Majority rule, we call it," Pelosi told a group of columnists Wednesday. But House and Senate leaders have not agreed on what later changes to make to the Senate bill...read more