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Subscribe to RSSIn a clash on the Senate floor Monday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said that Majority Leader Harry Reid’s planned move to change the Senate filibuster rule could jeopardize chances of reaching a deal on avoiding tax hikes and spending cuts at the end of the year.
“We have huge issues before us here at the end of the year, much of which will probably carry over into next year,” McConnell said in a debate with Reid that lasted nearly 30 minutes. “It’s a time that we ought to building collegiality and relationships and not making incendiary moves that are damaging to the institution and could have serious ramifications on our ability to work together here at the end of the year.”
NBC's Domenico Montanaro reports that although some Republicans have changed their tone on a new-no-taxes pledge, they aren't putting tax rate increases on the table.
The filibuster is the Senate tradition of unlimited debate on bills and nominations. Under current rules, a filibuster can be ended only by a vote of three-fifths of all senators, or 60 senators.
Reid said he’s not proposing that the Senate do away entirely with the filibuster, “just that we do away with filibusters on motions to proceed,” the procedural step that precedes a final debate on a bill or a nomination.
Toby Jorrin / AFP - Getty Images
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), accompanied by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), speaks at the White House after meeting with US President Barack Obama on November 16, 2012 in Washington,DC.
Reid called his proposed rule change “minor” and an attempt to make the Senate “more efficient” – but McConnell vehemently disputed that. “This is no small matter, this is a big issue about the future of this country and how this institution ought to be operated,” the Kentucky Republican said.
McConnell accused his Democratic counterpart of intending to “break the rules of the Senate in order to change the rules of the Senate.”
He pointed out that under the current Senate rules it takes 67 senators to enact a rule change.
Andrea Mitchell talks to Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., one of the Republican lawmakers breaking with the pledge to oppose all tax increases.
But Reid may move in January as soon as the Senate convenes for the new session of Congress to change the rules by a simple majority vote.
McConnell said Reid had used his power under the Senate rules to prevent Republican senators from offering amendments on proposed bills.
“He alone, out of 100 of us, gets to decide who gets to offer an amendment,” McConnell complained. “In other words he gets to pick our amendments for us.”
Therefore, McConnell said, the Republicans had responded by slowing or blocking debate through filibusters.
If Reid wants to defeat filibusters, McConnell suggested, he should “use the fatigue factor to grind down opposition” by forcing senators who were filibustering motions or bills to stay on the Senate floor and keep speaking.
But Reid said that “to the average American, these reforms are just common sense… America believes Congress is broken. Once again the only ones who disagree are Mitch McConnell and Republicans in Congress.”
He added later, “As I’ve traveled this country, people said, ‘Do something to change the Senate so we can get things done.’”
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What he said.
Our Congress was modeled after England's House of Lords and House of Commons in Parliament.
Can I get a Witness!
Congress needs to stop the filibuster---and the "super" majority. We need to have a simple majority. Who came up with that crap anyway? Those idiotic rules keep Congress from getting any thing done. That is why most of us have complete contempt for Congress. The Democrats need to grow a spine, and have POTUS's back. They need to stop dithering and focus. One good thing though---that troll Grover Norquist and his pledge is starting to crumble---the GOP is starting to defect.
Don't know specifically about the filibuster, '68, but folks one hell of a lot smarter than you devised the CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC in which we live. The electoral collage, representation based on population, but in which senatorial constituents are not, work under this grand plan. Get it?
I doubt it, though. Viva la.... whatever.
DisgustedConservative: I don't know if the framers of the Constitution were much smarter than anybody else. Like most people they were doing the best they could, and as often happens when free and decent people come together with a common purpose, good things resulted. Recently, many conservative politicians have sacrificed the principles of governance by reason and compromise for the sake of ideology. The American political tradition is based on these principles and ideologues who claim to be the reservoir of American values are actually doing their country a great disservice. Extreme and uncompromising politicians caused the failure of the French Revolution and the blight of communism in Russia and the Nazi state. The genius of the Constitution lay not in the intelligence of the makers, and most of them were intelligent men, but in their willingness to listen and a respect for the views of their peers.
ThinkingLongTerm:
So? Do you think Republicans are ready to sit down and work with the President? No chance in hell, they want to keep the fillibuster in order to keep blocking every single bill Obama proposes, no matter the price to the country of the people.
Patriotic Repugnicans!!
What a bunch of JOKERS
The stupid thing is that most Republicans actually seem fine with the proposed change, but are apparentyl being contrary out of habit.
The Reps are going to nickle and dime the Dems until they get want they want....the wealthy not to share in the pain that THEY caused with their reckless financial decisions.
Use the leverage of the tax cut expiration.
The republicans will come around.
Nothing Reid is proposing prevents bills from being filibustered. I really don't see the problem
Think about it, logically: If we are to be a Democracy/Republic, how can we allow one (1) Senator the right to derail all legislation all of the time. Rule of the one over the will of the many. Hmmm. That ain't Socialist, that's for sure. But that other word comes to mind. Starts with an 'f". No, that other word that starts with an "f". Facism, as: "a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control" Strange that the party weilding this power that was expected to be used sparingly and thoughfully has used it like a sledgehammer to cripple the country in the name of, freedom? Makes you wonder why the Dems didn't use this weapon against to block W's unpaid for wars and tax breaks for those who did not and do not need them. Pshycology states that bullying stops when the bully is called out and the victim refuses to be victimized. The filibuster as it is being used as a bullying tactic the bully doesn't even need to enact to make work. Just the threat of doing it is enough. Well, enough is enough. Let's call out the bully. Hey, Mitch McConnell! Enough is enough!
Shut up Mitch you worthless fillibuster!!
McCain says the GOP needs a bigger tent. GOP Filibusters again? How can the GOP get a bigger tent when they consider the 47% takers and also many of them heathens who do not tow the religious right's zealot line? When a Norquist makes them all quiver in fear. When a word from Limbaugh or FOX comes down as a commandment from the Lord. When Blacks, Latinos and even legal immigrants are treated like non-citizens. Come on, get real. This GOP is the party of the white right wing Christians and intends to remain that way. All this "big tent" talk is just PR propaganda. Norquist is almost over.
Take it back to the old process and have it so you have to stand and talk to filibuster, nnot make a phone call and declare you are going to filibuster and have to do nothing. Lazy jackasses!
CLIFFl, Agreed. You'd be astounderd at how few filibusters there would be if these bums on the Right had to actually work for it. This rule was meant for extenuating circumstances, not a daily act of throwing a wrench into the works.
Mitch McConnell is the biggest liar in Congress and an impediment to functioning government.
I say arrest the traitor, hold a public trial then a public execution on the National Mall.
That should teach the right-wing terrorists to stop forking up our country just because they hate democracy and everything American.
Hang 'em high !!!
The only ones standing in the way are McConnell and the Republicans. SSDD or NTSS(new term, same schitt)
we've had a 1 party system (democratic) in california for decades, and now a super majority - nobody in california, democrat or republican can look at california's example and say things are better under 1 party rule - dont be in such a rush to sell out america's future by rubber stamping everything the democratic party wants - if you give them the gold, they'll spend it, and then some - keep some balance folks.
Temporary single party rule is vastly preferable to dysfunctional government. It is the Republicans who turned themselves into a dysfunctional party, unfit to rule, that has made the democrats the only option left for people who value sane government. And until the Republican Party reforms itself from within they cannot be trusted to be anywhere near power of any kind.
unift to rule? okay, but remember they were elected - and by your logic, those that elected them are unfit to vote ? with all due respect, your logic isnt quite sound there. as for your 'temporary single party rule' comment - i wouldnt call the last few decades or so of a california democratic majority temporary, would you? We are dead last in schools, highest taxes in the US, and per capita have the most poor people living here (1/3 of them in US) and most on the govt dole, cities and counties declaring bankruptcy and democratic govt that wants even more money to 'fix it'. is this what a 'functional' govt looks like to you? So, i'll bite and ask you, what policy or policies are you anxious to see get passed that would help you, your neighbors or state that would have you upset that the 2 parties are not working together to get things done? Please enlighten me..
The Senate MUST get rid of HARRY REID. He is a Major disaster in our government. He does not play fair with the Democrats or the Republicans, by deciding what should go before the Senate. He then stacks the cards in his favor and not the good of the country.
I take that you have no grasp of Senate procedures. If you did, you would know that Reid hasn't behaved differently than any other Majority Leader of recent years, regardless of party.
The filibuster needs to go. No other legislative body that I know of has it--and for good reason. All it does is allow a group of obstructionists to ensure that nothing gets done.
haha.. well welcome to the USA Zorro! you just discovered what makes our system of govt unique! and now i'll give you a reason why we have these types of procedures - it's called checks and balances - maybe you heard of it? many of these procedures have been around since our founding 200+ years, seems to be working fine- not perfect, but fine.. politics is leverage as you already know, and these procedures are leverage tools to get one side or the other to agree on something (e.g. a balance) as opposed to rubber stamping everything one side or the other wants to do - think about it.. without it, you dont have the US - that's just a fact - you can argue over minutia, but in the grand scheme - it's worked in the past for both sides whether blocking nominess to the courts, or appointments etc.. or passage of bills - regardless, a very effective tool to use in bargaining and the very thing that makes our system of govt far more functional than you might otherwise believe.
For the hypocrite McConnell, collegiality means the other side doing everything exactly as he wants. As the man under whose minority leadership the abuse of the filibuster became a harmful joke, McConnell has zero credibility to say anything at all about filibuster reform and should simply shut up.
The minority has the right to be heard, not the right to completely block legislation supported by trhe majority. There should be some modified filibuster rule allowing a certain reasonable amount of time for the minority to present its case, without the threat of blocking a final floor vote.
The founding fathers (framers of the Constitution) were precise in defining, in the Constitution, any vote requiring a "super-majority," beyond that of the simple majority. I cannot imagine them approving of a "procedural rule" overturning Constitutional intent, whereby a super-majority is required to prevent the blockage of legislation which may be passed by a simple majority.
Mitch McConnell talking about the importance of collegiality and relationships has about as much credibility as an anti-doping speech from Lance Armstrong.
I think there might be one of two options to the filibuster problem. First, if you are going to filibuster, do so, talk talk talk and if you can not, then the filibuster is over. Do it the way it was intended. My second idea is to possibly limit the number of times a party can filibuster in any session of congress to maybe six. Six times in the two year session sounds awfully good to me. Also, when they do filibuster with the numerical limit, again they must talk and hold the floor, none of this threaten and then do nothing.
The problem with a limit is that the opposition party will figure out ways to make the party in power quickly exhaust its quota. I like the idea of reducing the number of votes required for cloture each time a vote is taken.
In any case, the Republicans have clearly abused the practice and, in the process, abused Senate traditions. So I don't see why tradition should play a role here.
This just cracks me up...this is McConnell's solution to try and reign in the filibustering that has stagnated legislation: lol, typical pub. Btw, it's time for some of these guys to retire. It's 2012, and they need to move on....
"If Reid wants to defeat filibusters, McConnell suggested, he should “use the fatigue factor to grind down opposition” by forcing senators who were filibustering motions or bills to stay on the Senate floor and keep speaking."]
The fatigue factor???? Does any reasonable person not see this as laughable language from yet another pub "leader"? All the problems we have and he wants to propose the "fatigue factor"???
Lordy, no wonder they lost.
Mitch needs to go!
Wouldnt that be wonderful???? Cant stand the man.....
As I toured the country, people said to get McConnell and Boehner out of office. I suspect when they are up for re-election, that will happen. They are doing way too much damage to our country and people by refusing to compromise on anything and then saying it's the people who want this....In the words of Joe Biden, I say....MALARKEY