God damn they are stupid

And they will kill us.

From the AFP this afternoon.

Democrats to use contentious tactic on health care

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Senate Democrats Thursday heralded a bitter endgame of President Barack Obama's health reform drive, announcing they would use a contentious legislative tactic to try to pass the bill.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid formally notified the Republican opposition that he would seek to pass the legislation by "reconciliation."

The reporter doesn't give us the actual sentence in which Reid used the word "reconciliation," so we don't know the context in which he used it. And Reid has been known to mis-speak.

But, one more time and with feeling. "Reconciliation" -- "contentious" or not, will not be used to pass a health care reform bill. Health care legislation has been passed, by a super majority in the Senate and a wide majority in the House. Only one bill can go to the president. So, certain items relating to its effect on the budget can be "reconciled" by a simple majority so, like, the U.S. government doesn't begin acting like California.

Kent Conrad explained this quite clearly in various mediums, and still reporters -- reporters who cover the workings of the U.S. Congress, I assume -- do not understand how this works.

The report does sort of kinda mention this later and also reminds readers that the GOP used reconciliation "on occasion" when they were in the majority. But none of that comes in until eight graphs into the story.