I FIND AN ANSWER ABOUT RECONCILIATION

Below I wondered why the Dems didn't use the reconciliation process to deal with the Bush tax cuts and now Ezra Klein has provided two answers:

1) The Dems could only do this at the very beginning of the budget process and they failed to do so.

2) After the Bush tax cuts were passed through reconciliation, the Dems made a new rule that no reconciliation bill can increase the deficit.  That would make retaining any of the cuts out of the question.