Roll Call: GOP quickly goes to war

While the Senate Republican caucus is fewer in number than the Democrats, it gains the advantage of nimbleness.

Roll Call (registration required) explains:

Senate Republicans may not have the physical numbers to filibuster the Democrats' health care reform bill, but they have wasted little time in using the Senate’s rules to their utmost advantage in their quest to trip up consideration of the measure.

In their first shot at the measure this week, Republicans decided to try to strike at the heart of how Democrats plan to pay for the $848 billion measure by attempting to eliminate the proposal’s almost $440 billion in Medicare cuts.

But instead of offering a conventional amendment, they decided to use an esoteric procedural tactic that would send the bill back to committee with instructions to eliminate the cuts. If successful, the GOP's gambit would force Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to use time-consuming procedures and hold another filibuster-killing vote on whether to restart debate on the bill.

Republicans said they are likely to use the procedural tactic repeatedly during debate this month as they seek to make the point that the Senate should go back to the drawing board on the health care bill. But Democrats said the strategy is just another way Republicans are attempting to delay the measure.

Technorati tags: politics Congress health universal health care obamacare Republican gop