Last Thursday, President Biden signaled “that he would be willing to consider supporting the elimination of the filibuster,” CBS News reported following his first news conference, “if Senate Republicans use it to block Democratic legislative priorities from receiving a full vote on the Senate floor.”
“If”? Stopping the majority party from taking its legislation to a floor vote without a 60-vote supermajority to end debate is what the filibuster does.
The president, a Democrat, is saying the filibuster is
You will of course not be shocked to learn that Biden has been a longtime, adamant supporter of the filibuster. In 2005, he gave an impassioned defense, arguing, “At its core, the filibuster is not about stopping a nominee or a bill — it’s about compromise and moderation.”
Biden called the GOP attack then a “fundamental power grab” and said his oration “may be one of the most important speeches for historical purposes that I will have given in the 32 years since I have been in the Senate.”
Yet, the filibuster is not in the Constitution.
It is simply a Senate rule. And the majority party in the Senate can thereby fiddle with it.
I’m not so much wed to the filibuster as I am wed to the idea that the rules with which Washington insiders wield power serve us and not just themselves.
The filibuster should be made official in law or Constitution precisely so politicians cannot change it on whim or passion.
Or it should be ended. But not before one party (or both) actually campaigns to end it, so that the American people can weigh in. Because these must be our rules if it is to be our government.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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6 replies on “Our Rules or Theirs?”
Democrats want honestly to do away with the filibuster. The filibuster was used in the Senate 250 times during 2020 – every time by Democrats. (Can you spell hypocrisy?).
Only Mitch McConnell could allow legislation to come to the Senate floor. Therefore, there was no reason for republican filibusters. Why would they filibuster their own legislation?
The filibuster is only used by the minority party.
Not true. DEMOCRATS held the majority in the Senate (and House) after the 1954 midterm election and filibustered many attempts to pass civil rights legislation, even after 1960, when they held the White House and majorities in both chambers of Congress. During the Kennedy-Johnson administrations, they held enough seats to break a filibuster. They were the majority party and they used the filibuster.
***The filibuster is only used by the minority party.***
Exactly.
And now that the repubs are the minority party, the dems want to end it
Neil Gorsuch was confirmed on the Supreme Court after Republicans used the nuclear option to change the filibuster rule for Supreme Court nominees. The rule was also used for subsequent nominees.
Hypocrisy by republicans?
Democrats employed the nuclear option first. After blocking nominations for the lower courts during the Bush years, they couldn’t handle it when their own tactics were used against them. Harry Reid changed the rule for the lower courts to get Obama nominees confirmed. Mitch McConnell warned him against it but Reid wouldn’t listen. Reid opened the door and McConnell walked through. Sauce for the goose….