Here we go. Let Kent speak for himself: While some have described reconciliation -- a process that requires only a majority vote in the Senate to pass legislation that reduces the deficit -- as an obscure, rarely used procedure, the truth is that it has been used 22 times since 1980, with 16 of those times occurring when Republicans controlled the Senate. Republican efforts to block its use now for a "fixer" bill represent little more than a politically expedient attempt to kill health-care legislation.

A plan reading of the pathetic paragraph above suggests that "22" is a big number, and perhaps even BIGGER because it includes "16." Let's do the math.

1980 included the second session of the 96th Congress. Here's the first Public Law coming in 1980:

178. H.R.3091 : A bill to extend for one year the provisions of law relating to the business expenses of state legislators. Sponsor: Rep Rostenkowski, Dan [IL-8] (introduced 3/19/1979). Cosponsors (5). Committees: House Ways and Means. House Reports: 096-63; Latest Conference Report: 096-718. Latest Major Action: 1/2/1980 Public Law 96-178.

The last bill for the 96th was numbered 613. That comes to 436 public laws.

More: 97th, 473; 98th, 623; 99th, 663; 100th, 713; 101st, 650; 102d, 590; 103d, 465; 104th, 333; 105th, 394; 106th, 580; 107th, 377; 108th, 498; 109th, 482; 110th, 460; and 111th, 145.

Total Public Laws passed since 1980, inclusive: 7,882
Conrad's count of reconciliation-based laws: 22

Percentage of "reconciliation" laws to total laws: 0.28%

That's 1 out of every 358 occurrences.

To me, Kent, I suggest that constitutes an "obscure, rarely used procedure."

But let's set aside the red herring. Here's the hard truth: "If the House now passes that legislation [Senate bill as is - no fixes], it can go immediately to President Obama's desk to be signed into law."