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Since Democrats took control of the Senate in 2006, Republicans Have Mounted 380 Filibusters
When the Majority Doesn’t Count
Republicans have managed to give the public Republican rule even though the public elected Democratic rule.
Nifty trick.
Even neater, for them, is that the media (in particular the Sunday shows) love to talk about how Congress is broken and both parties do it. Of course, that’s not really what’s been going down and the media should know better. It’s not as if Republicans didn’t announce that their tactic would be to obstruct every single thing President Obama wanted to accomplish. They did.
You might recall that in 2007, former Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott explained how Republicans were getting around Democratic majorities, “The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail… So far it’s working for us.”
It works in part because the media ignores what they are doing. Just yesterday I wrote about how PolitiFact is holding Obama accountable for a failed promise on the UN Disability Treaty that was blocked by Republicans. So, yes, obstruction pays well. After blocking bills, Republicans blame Obama and the Democrats for not getting things passed.
This leads to many frustrating conversations with conservatives who rely on the stark simplicity of a lie over the complex nuance of the truth. In an effort to justify/deny the Republican abuse of filibusters, you’ll often hear from conservatives, “It’s all procedural and both sides do it.” If that doesn’t work, they come out with, “Democrats have the majority so if they didn’t get what they wanted done, it’s their fault.” Both excuses are inaccurate.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) wants to change the filibuster rule in the Senate because Republicans have been abusing it. He pointed out in Politico this September, “Since Democrats took control of the Senate in 2006, Republicans have mounted 380 filibusters. This far exceeds anything we’ve seen before in the Senate. By comparison, in Lyndon B. Johnson’s six years as Senate majority leader, he faced just one filibuster.”
Reid merely wants to change what it would take to debate a bill, not the vote to actually pass it. It doesn’t seem like he’s asking too much.
But Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claims that the 60 supermajority vote rule is ordinary procedure. McConnell huffed at Reid’s filibuster reform, “What these Democrats have in mind is a fundamental change to the way the Senate operates.”
McConnell is incorrect. The founding fathers did not design the filibuster. Furthermore, according to James Madison in the Federalist Papers No. 58, “[Requiring a supermajority] would mean the fundamental principle of free government would be reversed. It would be no longer the majority that would rule; the power would be transferred to the minority.”
It gets worse for McConnell and his argument. In Federalist Papers No. 22, Alexander Hamilton seemed to anticipate the modern day Republican party, writing of the concept of a supermajority, “(I)ts real operation is to embarrass the administration, to destroy the energy of government and to substitute the pleasure, caprice or artifices of an insignificant, turbulent or corrupt junta, to the regular deliberations and decisions of a respectable majority.”
McConnell also seems to think that the Senate is designed to protect the minority voice. And yet, Citizens for Ethics explains, “The founding fathers, who needed a supermajority to approve any action under the Articles of Confederation, saw firsthand how such a requirement renders a government powerless to act. In response, they specifically limited supermajority requirements in the Constitution to treaties, impeachment, veto overrides, constitutional amendments, and expulsion of members. In their view, protecting the minority meant protecting the right to be heard, to offer amendments, and to cast votes that count.”
The notion of a supermajority to get anything done would leave the government powerless to act? Sounds like exactly the goal the Republicans had in mind when Trent Lott first gleefully told us how well the obstruction was going for them.
Here are but a few examples of bills that would likely have passed the Senate without the filibuster, according to Dylan Matthews at the Washington Post (more at link, including appointments):
The DREAM Act
The DISCLOSE Act
Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)
The Public option
Paycheck Fairness Act
Permanent middle-class Bush tax cut extension
Rescinding of the upper-income Bush tax cuts
Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act
Emergency Senior Citizens Relief Act
Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act
American Jobs Act
The Buffett rule
Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act of 2011
Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act
While getting through the Senate doesn’t mean they would have passed as law, these examples show you how you the public’s wishes are being abused by Republicans in the Senate. The public elected Democrats ostensibly because the public supports Democratic ideas, such as the above list. But the public is not getting a chance at those policies because Republicans have distorted the function of the filibuster.
Here are a few graphs to demonstrate that Republicans have abused the filibuster beyond any previous usage, both parties don’t do it equally, and it has gotten so out of hand since Republicans began really abusing it in 2007 that the people are being royally robbed of democracy.
(Note: The frequency of filibusters and threats to use them are measured by the number of times the upper chamber votes on cloture. Cloture is a Senate procedure to end debate so other business can be brought to the floor.) Click to enlarge:
Image: cloture graph by Todd Lindeman for Ezra Klein’s Washington Post column
cloture votes as of 2008, Our Future.Org
chart of filibusters since 1992
The Republican abuse of the filibuster has effectively stymied the Senate from doing its job and functioning as an actual body of government, and this is why Harry Reid is aiming at reforming the filibuster rules in January at the start of the new session.
Additional sources: Senate Cloture Votes
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14 Responses to Since Democrats took control of the Senate in 2006, Republicans Have Mounted 380 Filibusters
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Reynardine
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 8:43 am
Both sides don’t do it equally. The difference between Left and Right politics in the United States is exactly the difference between ordinary people and authoritarians: authoritarian personalities (as defined by everyone from Adorno to Altemeyer to Dean) are convinced that only they are right, and therefore only they *have* rights. Therefore, anything they do to get their way is *fair*; anything anyone else -whether voters, legislators, courts, journalists, the Executive- might do to keep them from getting it, is *unfair*. Most people don’t think like that. That’s why it’s so hard to convince either the public or the press that it’s really happening.
Tiffany Lathrop
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 10:02 am
Of course they are absolutely right; they are god’s people, and of course god is always absolutely right. They function within the paradigm of good vs evil: us against them. They are the good and the rest of us are the evil and to them anything is justified when fighting evil.
The republicans are not interested in participating in democracy; they are too busy with their religious crusade.
Brigita Petrutis
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 10:34 am
McConnell and a few others are malevolent psychopaths. They live, breathe, and spread the big lies so their goals are met, at the expense of the public, and with no remorse whatsoever. To misquote an ancient Greek, the traitor within is much more dangerous than the obvious enemy at the gates. These rotten apples like to deflect our attention to the obvious enemies, whilst they machinate and destroy from within.
Vista Republic
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 11:07 am
One of the greatest deceiving of our time is that the Democrat party is the true altruistic party of human kind. The very tactics they whine about being used against them, they will readily embrace during other times. In the name of caring for mankind the liberal agenda promotes a policy which is neither good for the people but is destructive in nature. Take the policies and tactics of 50 years of leadership from the city of Detroit. Detroit used to be one of the wealthiest metropolitan areas with average median income higher than the national average. Over the last 50 years a single sided and Democrat controlled government created unsustainable policies that embraced sweetheart deals with Unions, bailed out poor leadership in the automotive industry and determined what small businesses could operate within its boundaries. Detroit is the laboratory results of a one sided equation without anyone standing up or ‘filibustering’ BAD IDEAS.
The founding fathers knew of the dangers of a single sided process and thus built checks and balances into the system. What the liberal left have failed to realize is half of the country opposes their points of view and ideology in many cases. When only 24% of the actual population vote it becomes pretty arrogant for the liberal left to say “this is what American thinks and needs”.
Thank God for filibustering!
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Shiva (Moderator)
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 11:36 am
“When only 24% of the actual population vote it becomes pretty arrogant for the liberal left to say “this is what American thinks and needs”.”
Yet Boehner and McConnell say the same thing.
What the conservative right have failed to realize is more than half of the country opposes their points of view and ideology in many cases
You must just love getting rid of womens rights and birth control. making the right of men to rape a woman legal.
Since the time of the great treason of Reagan the financial corporations have created policys that will drive us out of control of our own governments
wiscogal
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 11:56 am
I cannot take serious anyone who refers to the DEMOCRATIC party as the democrat party.
Name calling-if that’s what that is- is beyond juvenile.
Learn & use the correct names of the major parties & then I might take your comments seriously.
Vista Republic
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Apparently our message would have never been taken serious by someone such as yourself. Instead you ignore the plethora of facts and focus on Democrat Party. For your benefit as a democrat we suggest you please reread our previous post and insert the word DEMOCRATIC for a much easier read for yourself. For those who read and understood our post, we suggest you read further about how Detroit has become what it is today and why.
As for the mantra of Shiva, WE simply do believe in being forced to pay for your birth control or healthcare regardless of your party affiliation of DEMOCRAT, REPUBLICAN or INDEPENDENT. Our posted content on Detroit is THE example of what socialized medicine policy will do to this country. We believe in the a land free from tyranny and socialism. Taking from one person to give to another doesn’t make you kind, it makes you a dictator or a bully.
May we also suggest to the Readers the book The Liberal Mind by Dr. Lyle Rossiter. It is a 20 year study on the mindset of the liberal left from a medical behavior point of view.
We Are Vista Republic
www.vistarepublic.com
Anne
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 11:20 am
There really does need to be filibuster reform, since the Republicans have used it so frequently. They have used it as a tool to foil legislation they disagree with and to impose their will in a way that the elections didn’t allow them to do. Through the constant filibusters, as well as other shenigans, they continue to prove that they are inept at governing and are in a perpetual state of campaigning.
nate33
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 12:00 pm
This is silly. Of course Republicans have filibustered more. That’s what you do when the other party controls both houses and the presidency and has a near supermajority in the Senate.
The Republicans have never had such unchecked power so the Democrats never needed to slow things down with filibusters.
Reynardine
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Your memory is extremely short, not extending backwards past January, 2007, it appears.
Tiffany Lathrop
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
The Democrats were voted in by a majority of the people to make changes that this majority felt were needed for the good of the country. When the republicans obstruct the will of the people then they are at the same time obstructing and mocking democracy itself.
roooth
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 3:04 pm
Not to make to fine a point of it, but, when was the last time McConnell was right about anything?
God, I hope Ashley Judd runs for his seat.
Will Riker
Dec. 9th, 2012 at 5:46 pm
While this author mentions a majority being the will of the people, almost every poll shows that America is split on a lot of issues. Sure, one party might have 51% every once in a while, but that does not give them authoritarian rule or any kind of “mandate” as so many are often fond of saying.
I actually prefer gridlock. While there are plenty of issues where America is split, there are plenty of issues that a super-majority of Americans agree on. Those are the only things I want passing anyway.
garyd552
Dec. 10th, 2012 at 5:29 am
By Mcconnell filibustering his own dang bill within 1 minute of Harry saying he called for the vote on said bill, should show even the lowest IQ people, like the ones posting, above that filibuster reform is critical to America growing in the next term, no matter how BLACK the president is.