Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag kept up the pressure on Senate Republicans over the weekend by continuing to raise the possibility that the White House may use the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process to pass comprehensive health care reform if the Republicans don’t show more flexibility.

From a Bloomberg report on Saturday.

Democrats probably won’t decide whether to use the procedure until next month when they complete their budget plans for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Orszag said lawmakers could use reconciliation as a backup plan if Republicans prove unwilling to compromise on health care legislation. “If, by September, nothing has happened, reconciliation would be a fallback option,” he said.

While Orszag singled out the Republicans, the threat actually applies equally, if not more, to Senate Democrats like Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) who keep saying (Friday and today, respectively) that they oppose the use of reconciliation — which would allow passage with a straight majority vote, rather than the usual 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster and end debate –  to pass major legislation. As Jonathan Chait at The New Republic notes, at this point, it is Senate Democrats who are undermining President Obama’s agenda more effectively than Republicans.