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November 26, 2012
105 notes

GOP warns of shutdown over filibuster

A partisan war is brewing that could bring the government to a screeching halt as early as January — and no, it’s not over the fiscal cliff.

It’s all about the filibuster.

Democrats are threatening to change filibuster rules, in what will surely prompt a furious GOP revolt that could make those rare moments of bipartisan consensus even harder to come by during the next Congress.

Here’s what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering: banning filibusters used to prevent debate from even starting and House-Senate conference committees from ever meeting. He also may make filibusters become actual filibusters — to force senators to carry out the nonstop, talkathon sessions.

Republicans are threatening even greater retaliation if Reid uses a move rarely used by Senate majorities: changing the chamber’s precedent by 51 votes, rather than the usual 67 votes it takes to overhaul the rules.

“I think the backlash will be severe,” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), the conservative firebrand, said sternly. “If you take away minority rights, which is what you’re doing because you’re an ineffective leader, you’ll destroy the place. And if you destroy the place, we’ll do what we have to do to fight back.”

“It will shut down the Senate,” the incoming Senate GOP whip, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, told POLITICO. “It’s such an abuse of power.”

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An abuse of power? The GOP has been abusing the filibuster for two years now, and people wonder why congress can’t get anything done.

I, for one, welcome these changes!

Tags: politics GOP filibuster

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May 24, 2012
14 notes
Guilty as Charged: How the GOP Killed Washington DC It’s rare that a criminal publicly announces his intent to commit a felony. But when it came to their scorched-earth campaign of obstructionism to destroy the Obama presidency, GOP leaders weren’t shy about their plans. While 15 top Republicans schemed in private on the night of Obama’s inauguration to “challenge them on every single bill and challenge them on every single campaign,” conservative mouthpieces like Bill Kristol and Rush Limbaugh promised gridlock at every turn. Three years later, as Congressional scholars Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann suggest in their new book, the Republicans’ foul deed is done. From its record-setting use of the filibuster and its united front against Obama’s legislative agenda to blocking judicial nominees and its unprecedented (and repeated) threats to trigger a U.S. default, the most conservative Congress in over 100 years has stopped Washington dead in its tracks. But judging from the muted reaction from the press and a public evenly split in its Congressional preference, Republicans are getting away with their crime. keep reading and here’s another chart of interest, from the same article. I keep hearing over and over that “congress did the same thing when roles were reversed (democratic congress and republican president)”  The truth of the matter is, that’s an outright lie and more of the “both sides are the same” rhetoric.

Guilty as Charged: How the GOP Killed Washington DC

It’s rare that a criminal publicly announces his intent to commit a felony. But when it came to their scorched-earth campaign of obstructionism to destroy the Obama presidency, GOP leaders weren’t shy about their plans. While 15 top Republicans schemed in private on the night of Obama’s inauguration to “challenge them on every single bill and challenge them on every single campaign,” conservative mouthpieces like Bill Kristol and Rush Limbaugh promised gridlock at every turn.

Three years later, as Congressional scholars Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann suggest in their new book, the Republicans’ foul deed is done. From its record-setting use of the filibuster and its united front against Obama’s legislative agenda to blocking judicial nominees and its unprecedented (and repeated) threats to trigger a U.S. default, the most conservative Congress in over 100 years has stopped Washington dead in its tracks. But judging from the muted reaction from the press and a public evenly split in its Congressional preference, Republicans are getting away with their crime.

keep reading

and here’s another chart of interest, from the same article.

I keep hearing over and over that “congress did the same thing when roles were reversed (democratic congress and republican president)” 

The truth of the matter is, that’s an outright lie and more of the “both sides are the same” rhetoric.

Tags: politics GOP congress filibuster do nothing congress

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March 12, 2012
10 notes
Think Progress - Reid Will File To End Seventeen GOP Filibusters Of President Obama’s Judicial Nominees Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced this afternoon that he will file cloture — the Senate procedure to break a filibuster — on seventeen judicial nominees currently being blocked by Republican obstructionism. Nearly all of these nominees were either unanimously approved in the Senate Judiciary Committee or were approved with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) as the only objection. Lee, of course, promised to block all of President Obama’s nominees and he also believes that Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional. Unfortunately, however, there is good reason to fear that the Senate’s Republicans will continue to obstruct these nominees, or at least force the Senate to waste days and days debating them. From the minute President Obama took office, obstruction of judicial nominees skyrocketed — the average Obama nominee must wait nearly four times as long for a vote as the average nominee at this point in the Bush presidency. source

Think Progress - Reid Will File To End Seventeen GOP Filibusters Of President Obama’s Judicial Nominees

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced this afternoon that he will file cloture — the Senate procedure to break a filibuster — on seventeen judicial nominees currently being blocked by Republican obstructionism. Nearly all of these nominees were either unanimously approved in the Senate Judiciary Committee or were approved with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) as the only objection. Lee, of course, promised to block all of President Obama’s nominees and he also believes that Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional.

Unfortunately, however, there is good reason to fear that the Senate’s Republicans will continue to obstruct these nominees, or at least force the Senate to waste days and days debating them. From the minute President Obama took office, obstruction of judicial nominees skyrocketed — the average Obama nominee must wait nearly four times as long for a vote as the average nominee at this point in the Bush presidency.

source

Tags: politics GOP filibuster obstruction

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December 08, 2011
145 notes

BREAKING: GOP FILIBUSTERS MIDDLE CLASS TAX CUT — AGAIN

By Alex Seitz-Wald | Think Progress

A bill to extend the payroll tax holiday failed in the Senate this afternoon after Republicans filibustered the extension for a third time, preventing it from getting the 60 votes needed to begin debate or receive an up-or-down vote. The latest bill would have paid for the extension of the holiday, which primarily affects middle and low income Americans, by assessing a small, temporary tax on the top 0.2 percent of income earners. The vote was 50-48.

[SOURCE]

Tags: GOP tax middle class Filibuster politics

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December 08, 2011
10 notes

45 GOP Senators Filibustering Consumer Protection Nominee Have Received Millions From Wall Street This Year

by Pat Garofalo | Think Progress

The Senate today is scheduled to vote on the nomination of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the new agency created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. It’s unlikely, at this point, that Democrats have enough votes to overcome a Republican filibuster. Forty-five Republican senators have pledged to block any nomineeuntil structural changes are made to the Bureau that would undermine its effectiveness.

Wall Street banks have been fighting the new agency tooth and nail, and as it turns out, the 45 Republicans who have vowed to block the agency’s director have been lavished with donations from the financial services industry, as the Public Campaign Action Fund noted:

– The 44 Senate Republicans who signed a letter in May pledging to filibuster any CFPB nominee (plus Sen. Dean Heller who later added his name once appointed to the Senate) have received over $6.5 million from the financial industry in 2011 and nearly $125.6 million over their careers.

– Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Senate Banking committee (and lead signer of the letter), has received at least $81,850 in 2011and $6.2 million from the FIRE sector throughout his career.

Shelby, in fact, received a $5,000 donation from Goldman Sachs the day after he denounced the Bureau as “dangerous.”

So far, just one Republican has broken ranks and said that he will support Cordray: Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), who is facing a strong challenge from Prof. Elizabeth Warren. As ThinkProgress’ Ian Millhiser has noted, if the GOP continues to filibuster Cordray, President Obama can always break out the Roosevelt precedent, in order to allow Cordray to do his job and allow the Bureau to begin the work for which it was created.

UPDATE

Corday’s nomination “failed” by 53-45 vote because it did not receive the 60 votes needed to break the GOP filibuster. Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) was the only Republican to vote in favor of confirming Cordray. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) voted present.

[SOURCE]

Tags: GOP Filibuster Consumer Protection politics

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November 08, 2011
7 notes

Republican filibuster of infrastructure bill is one more piece of economic sabotage

by Laura Clawson | Daily Kos

Bill Scher on the recent Republican filibuster of the jobs-creating infrastructure bill:

That’s right, just six years ago, Congress passed a massive infrastructure bill with near unanimous support: 412-8 in the House, 91-4 in the Senate.

So committed to cause of infrastructure was that Republican-controlled Congress in 2005, that they weren’t concerned that some of the 6,361 earmarked projects may not have constituted the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars.

But today? At a time when the need for jobs is painfully greater than six years ago?

A Democratic president proposes an infrastructure bill to create jobs. And every Senate Republican filibusters it.

A Democratic president proposal an infrastructure bill that does not increase the deficit. And every Senate Republican filibusters it.

Scher lists the 25 senators—23 Republicans, Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson—who, six years ago, voted yes on infrastructure and last week voted to filibuster: Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Jonny Isakson (R-GA), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Richard Lugar (R-IN), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), David Vitter (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Richard Burr (R-NC), Tom Coburn (R-OK), James Inhofe (R-OK), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Thune (R-SD), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Michael Enzi (R-WY).

What we’re seeing here is another piece of evidence that Republicans are more committed—much more committed—to opposing Barack Obama than to doing even the most basic, routine things to keep the economy going and keep bridges from collapsing under us. Filibusters like this are exactly why 50 percent of people believe Republicans are intentionally sabotaging the economy. (And, of course, Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson are joining them.)

[SOURCE]

Tags: republican filibuster infrastructure bill economic sabotage politics