AN analysis by Zachary B. Wolf of CNN said it was completely predictable that President Donald Trump would call on Senate Republicans to end the custom of the filibuster, which has bedeviled majority parties for years.
How are Democrats able to shut the government over their demands to re-up expiring enhanced Obamacare insurance subsidies? The filibuster.
Why were Republicans able to block Democrats’ efforts to create a national voting standard when Joe Biden was president? The filibuster.
In fact, most major legislation that has passed in recent years — from the Affordable Care Act to Trump’s tax credits and Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act — has been crammed through using budget reconciliation rules that allow lawmakers to sidestep the filibuster. But that’s a complicated process and can’t be used for things like spending bills to keep the government open.
Democrats tried and failed to change Senate rules when they had the majority and Biden was president. Now, Trump wants Republicans to change Senate rules while they have the majority and he’s the president.
The upside of ending the filibuster — a possibility known as the “nuclear option” of changing Senate rules — is that the in-power party could get more done. The downside is it would amplify the yo-yo nature of today’s Washington, with each successive Congress undoing whatever the previous one had accomplished, assuming majority rule changed hands.The Senate was designed to work on supermajority votes in order to generate compromise. Instead the system has created paralysis. This is a world where three-fifths is the only meaningful majority, “debate” is code for delay and party loyalty has overtaken the greater good.
To understand what’s going on, you’ll have to learn the special, pre-modern language of “filibuster” and “cloture,” baffling math and maddening rules like “Rule XXII” that govern Senate procedure and confound common sense.
What is the filibuster?
According to the Senate website — which has its own glossary — a filibuster is this: “Informal term for any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions.”
These days, it’s shorthand for anytime senators demand a supermajority to cut off debate and move to an actual vote on just about anything.
What would ending the filibuster do?
When people talk about ending the filibuster, what they really mean is reinterpreting Senate rules so that legislation could pass by a simple majority instead of being held up by a minority.
No comments:
Post a Comment