Prime content is available to paid members, please join us
Power is for Exercising, And Preserving If Possible
Discussion
Join our users to read our prime articles
Good points but shouldn’t we proceed with the expectation that the GOP will kill the filibuster anyway?
I would think the filibuster repeal is inevitable. We know that there will be no Republican senators who will cooperate on anything but the most tame legislation. Let’s be done with it. Dare the Republicans to take away health insurance when it’s their turn in power. They’ll be obliterated. Let them act and try to take away social security. People will send them out to Yukon.
Schumer should change the legislative filibuster rules in January. In the forms used in other countries, filibusters have a useful purpose, allowing a minority to bring attention to issues that might be elided without extraordinary efforts; in some cases stopping legislation but often just slowing it down to allow more time and attention for public consideration of the issues. That’s the type of filibuster the rules should allow; they should disallow a senator simply blocking legislation without discussion.