It’s striking how the coverage of the Republicans’ gaining a 41st vote in the Senate accepts without question the idea that there is nothing unusual or objectionable about a majority party needing 60 votes to pass any legislation there. This normalization of the filibuster, as I wrote in the December 2009 issue of Extra!, amounts to a radical change in the U.S. political system—but expect this change to be temporary. You can bet that the next time the Democrats are in the minority, and the Republicans don’t have 60 votes, corporate media will not consider it normal and natural for the minority party to dictate what the majority party can and cannot do.
So why aren’t the Democrats calling the Republican’s bluff? Why aren’t they making them actually filibuster ALL the bills that they threaten to filibuster? And when the Republicans do filibuster a bill, why don’t the Democrats let them keep talking & talking & talking, while the Democrats go in front of the news cameras and say “We’re trying to exercise the will of the majority of the people, but the Republicans are literally obstructing it and wasting the taxpayers money with their filibuster” etc, etc. And then when the government starts shutting down, and the military paychecks and Social Security checks aren’t issued, see how long the Republicans continue filibustering as the spotlights focus on them and their sham arguments. Just remember back to 1998 when Gingrich and the Republicans suffered electoral losses, in significant part due to their dilatory tactics and the impending shut-down of the government.
Because the Democrats are aching for an excuse not to pass health care reform (and a great many other reforms). Their constituents want it; their corporate benefactors don’t. In the back room, they’re telling their benefactors to let them save face with their constituents by pretending that those mean ol’ Republicans are really to blame. All the players know this, including the media. It’s us they want kept in the dark.
Unfortunately, media pressure will have no effect on the minority party doing the filibustering. Just take a look at what has happened here in California, where a supermajority is needed to pass new taxes, and our budget woes have been going on for decades.
This topic has been a sore point with me for ages — since when is “majority” equal to 60? When will the Democrats start to behave as though they have WON the election? As a teacher of high school seniors, this shames me that the Democratic leadership has failed to address this.
William is right on. Once you look for it you will see a good cop bad cop scenerio over and over.
The most progresive Democrates are allowd to continue there positions because that keeps the progressive populace from forming or joining another partry which would complcate this lock of the two party system on the government.
The media is part of this staged game that is being played for serious stakes making it near impossible to mount any effective change to the two party system. The Democratic leadership has the same objectives as the Republican leadership but Democrats must act like they are working for the people.
Sometimes they go overboard with rhetoric as Obama did in his campaign and then can’t explain his actions for his first year in office. The Media will cover as best they can for him making lots of excuses such as him needingt to be bi-partisan or caving in to the Republicans. You can watch for other excuses as they are almost always a part of any descriptin of why Obama and the Democrates do what they do.
or he is governing like a Senator and not like a President. (Thom Hartman)
– Arlen
Senate Rule XXII is what dispenses with a simple majority of 50%+1 (now 51 votes) on the senatorial side of Congress.
Before World War I, there was no rule other than that the Senate could gum up the works for the House and President anytime it saw fit to do so. President Wilson was severely annoyed by this when he couldn’t get Senate approval to fund America’s participation in the European War that came on the heels of Mr. Wilson’s Revenue Act of 1913…wherein the wealthy ended up providing said funding in the end. Mr. Wilson wasn’t as dumb as each Dennis of the Senatorial Menace thought he was, that’s for sure.
Later, the democrats managed to modify Rule XXII from 67% of senators “present” to 60% of senators “elected and sitting”. That was more than thirty years ago, as we recall.
In order to further modify Rule XXII downward to 51% of senators sitting (a simple, FAIR majority), 60% of senators sitting would have to give their votes and collective approval.
Is this probable? We seriously doubt it…the reason being that both democrats and republicans seriously prefer gridlock over serious governing. And the president from the political party that enforces Rule XXII in the Senate also prefers said gridlock.
President Obama is no different. Why should he be? He is a card carrying member of the privileged class…a la Bush, Clinton and every president since George Washington.
We’ve got a privileged class public sector run by those passing through the privileged class revolving door going and coming to and from the privileged class private sector.
Likewise, we’ve got a privileged class Constitution, in that it is violated by the privileged class going and coming.
The privileged class public sector includes President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid…as well as at least 5 of the 9 judges (including one Chief Justice) sitting at any one time on the Supreme court. The privileged class private sector includes corporate America and Wall Street…as well as the media.
And here’s one for you (FAIR or not!)—the privileged class media is teeming with PR types whose clientele are the members of the privileged class public and private sectors (including themselves in the privileged class media!).
We in the Middle and Working Class just have to get used to the preceding facts. The founding fathers were all members of the privileged class, and figured all of this out more than 200 years ago.
We spill the blood, i.e., we risk and sacrifice our lives and limbs, sight, hearing and mental & physical health…all so that the privileged class can laugh all the way to the bank with a top marginal federal income tax rate (and abundant loopholes to reduce taxable income) of only 70%. This top rate was 91% between 1951 and the beginning of our risks and sacrifices in Vietnam in 1963-64. The top rate was 70% until Hollywood soldier, Ronald Reagan, got heavily and indispensably assisted by a democrat congress to lower the top rate to 50% in 1981 and then to 28% in 1986 (now 35%…or 35 gratuitous percent way too much…merely gambling money for the privileged class).
In the meantime, the Middle Class saw its rate raised by succeeding presidents and congresses from 11% in 1980 to 35% now.
The bottom rate should be fixed at 10% for Middle Class individuals and Small Businesses, so that jobs can be created and health care negotiated by the powerhouse of the U.S. economy, i.e., Middle Class Small Businesses.
The top rate should be fixed at a MINIMUM of 70% for the privileged class.
ALL INCOME should be taxed, REGARDLESS of its source…just like the 16th Amendment intended (a republican Constitutional Amendment ratified in 1913, incidentally)…and just like the Revenue Act of 1913 intended when NOBODY in the Middle Class paid federal income taxes. No respectable Middle Class person paid federal income taxes until after Dwight Eisenhower left the presidency in 1960, and Jack Kennedy (and then Lyndon Johnson) came along and SAW GREEN (and we’re not talking environmental green here, but simply monetary green). Ronald Reagan simply “closed the loop…but not the giant whirlpool loophole” created after Ike retired.
OKJack┞¢Group┞¢
Middle & Working Class Disabled American Veterans
We Paid the Dues that Aren’t Required!┞¢
http://www.oklahomajack.com
I say the House should pass the Senate’s bill, then go to re-conciliation and add Medicare for those 40 and over to buy into if working or get it if not. Then there has to be an antitrust bill passed; the Democrats must force the Republicans to actually filibuster on the floor while nothing else gets done and the Democrats are explaining to the press why this is happening while the Republicans are inside reading the phone book. Democrats – get some guts! We need that #*&^+ health bill.
The Dems have been playing footsie long enough with the Repubs. I was taught 51 is a Majority! We have only begun to fight! Retool the Bill and make it what the people want. Like you campaigned on! Teddy, give Barack your big stick!
Marilyn
Nederland, TX
It is troubling that House and Senate Democrats aren’t more agreeable amongst themselves. Gerri’s idea of the House agreeing to the Senate bill and then moving forward with the public option or medicare for all w/reconciliation is a great idea. It makes possibilities out of the impossible.
Why is every Dem & Progressive shivering while pooping in their pants? Filibusters are a sham! There’s no mention of it in the Constitution, plus RULES ARE ADMINISTERED BY THE MAJORITY: so just threaten
the “nuclear option” (kill or disslove it), like the R’s did when they were the Bush majority, not as big as
now.. The Regressives (aka Republicans) used rules to stop ALL Filibusters, Dem hearings & subpoenas
& the R’s must be made to filibuster all night or stop it.. and the people do & will not vote for Dems who continue to act as LIVER-LILLY SAP SUCKERS!! They will lose BIGTIME if they dont STOP FILIBUSTERS & DELAYS IN THEIR TRACKS AND PASS REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM, JOBS/IMMIGRATION REFORM, BREAK UP & REGULATE BANKS & WALL STREET, STOP THE WARS etc. last I checked there are NOT 120 senators!
WE THE PEOPLE MUST DEMAND ACTION, OR WITHHOLD OUR SUPPORT, VOTES & $$$ NOW!!!
Some of the posts on this thread insist that Democrats and Republicans are all the same, just different factions of the same corporate party, etc. These correspondents can believe that politics is all a shadow act, if they want, but most of us know better. It is true that some Democrats are responsible for our present political troubles, but it’s not ALL Democrats. It’s people like Max Baucus, who delayed the health care bill past the point when it was sure of passage. He (and Conrad, Nelson, and the rest of the conservative Dems) opened the door to the Republicans, who opened the door to the crazies. This is not that different from what David Boren, John Breaux and the conservative Dems of the Clinton years, along with the insurance lobby, did to the last health care bill. The problem is that Baucus, Conrad, etc., get elected by a few hundred thousand votes from small states in which a few hundred thousand dollars makes a big difference. In those places, big insurance money from out of state funds about 70% of those senators’ total war chest. When you throw in Joe Lieberman and a few others, that leaves a hobbled majority. If you further add “liberal Republicans” like Snowe and Collins, who’ve lost any taste for butting up against their party’s crazies (who can have a big effect in small states), you have a mess. Our only hope was for Obama to throw all his weight into passage as early as possible, before the luster of his victory had faded. But the financial crisis took most of his energy and focus. So here we are. What to do? I’m no Svengali, but I agree with some of the previous posters: keep on fighting, don’t fold, but, if necessary compromise and take three-quarters of a loaf, if absolutely necessary. Most important, put blame for our miseries where it belongs: Republicans, Greenspan, the “starve-the-beast” crowd, the deregulators, the banks, insurance comnpanies, etc. Democratic legislators may be in bad odor, but not as bad as Wall St.
Perhaps, if enough progressives joined the republican party, it would turn from red to green. As it stands now, the party’s policy is that of a 2 year old – vote NO to everything. An honest dialog about people’s concerns doesn’t hurt anything but the status quo and those who would keep people in the dark. We need clean air, clean water, good food, adequate clothing and shelter, safe transportation, affordable medical care, and jobs.