Budget Sets Up Health Care Fight

Things are about to get ugly. Congressional Democrats are finishing a budget plan that will almost certainly protect their proposed health care reforms from filibusters—a move Republicans are already preparing to counter-attack. White House and congressional leaders are planning to use the "reconciliation" process on the health care bill, which means it only needs a Senate majority to pass and cannot be blocked by filibuster. Republicans say they'll fight back with their own procedural maneuvers: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned President Obama on Thursday that the reconciliation tool will cause trouble in Congress.