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   How Obamacare Became Law   
      
   Obamacare was signed into law in March 2010.  If you recall,   
   Nancy Pelosi’s Democratic majority in the House of   
   Representatives was unable to pass their version of a healthcare   
   law. Because all revenue bills have to originate in the House,   
   the Senate found a bill that met those qualifications: HR3590, a   
   military housing bill. They essentially stripped the bill of its   
   original language and turned it into the Patient Protection and   
   Affordable Care Act (PPACA), aka Obamacare.   
      
   The Senate at that time had 60 Democrats, just enough to pass   
   Obamacare.  However after the bill passed the Senate, Democrat   
   Senator Ted Kennedy died.  In his place, Massachusetts elected   
   Republican Scott Brown.  That meant that if the House made any   
   changes to the bill the Senate wouldn’t have the necessary   
   number of votes to pass the amended bill (because they knew no   
   Republicans would vote for Obamacare).  So Senate Leader Harry   
   Reid cut a deal with Pelosi: the House would pass the Senate   
   bill without any changes if the Senate agreed to pass a separate   
   bill by the House that made changes to the Senate version of   
   Obamacare.  This second bill was called the Reconciliation Act   
   of 2010. So the House passed PPACA, the Senate bill, as well as   
   their Reconciliation Act. At this point PPACA was ready for the   
   President to sign, but the Senate still needed to pass the   
   Reconciliation Act from the House.   
      
   Confused?   
      
   We all were.   
      
   And it got worse.   
      
   Remember that the Senate only had 59 votes to pass the   
   Reconciliation Act since Republican Scott Brown replaced   
   Democrat Ted Kennedy.  Therefore in order to pass the Act Senate   
   Democrats decided to change the rules.  They declared that they   
   could use the “Reconciliation Rule (this is a different   
   “reconciliation” than the House bill).  This rule was only   
   supposed to be used for budget item approvals so that such items   
   could be passed with only 51 votes in the Senate, not the usual   
   60.  Reconciliation was never intended to be used for   
   legislation of the magnitude of Obamacare. But that didn’t stop   
   them.   
      
   So both of the “Acts” were able to pass both houses of Congress   
   and sent to President Obama for his signature without a single   
   Republican vote in favor of the legislation.  The American   
   system of governance was shafted.  To quote Democrat Rep. Alcee   
   Hastings of the House Rules Committee during the bill process:   
   “We’re making up the rules as we go along.”   
       
      
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