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    All that stands between what Americans want and what congress delivers is an absurd rule

    Lisa Kerr
    DC Report
    January 25, 2021

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    Senators Ron Johnson and Marco Rubio
    SEnators Ron Johnson and Marco Rubio. (CBS/MSNBC screenshots)

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Lisa Kerr
    DC Report

    How did we find ourselves, despite unified government and a mandate of 81 million Biden-Harris votes, with a Congress so paralyzed that it cannot even pass the organizing resolution to put leaders onto committees? How do popular priorities like immigration reform and vote protection remain frozen?

    Because the Senate won't end the filibuster—a bit of parliamentary nonsense that gives a minority of senators a veto over most legislative proposals.

    I've been screaming this. If Congress passes the Biden-Harris priority bills by ending the filibuster, Democratic majorities in Congress will grow, and so will bipartisanship. Getting those bills into law is America's best chance to protect our democracy from the looming threat of overthrow.

    Ending the filibuster ... is America's best chance to protect our democracy from the looming threat of overthrow.

    Even internal Republican surveys have found that "increasing funding for veterans' mental health services, strengthening and preserving Medicare and Social Security, and reforming the student loan system all scored higher than Trump's favored subjects of tax cuts, border security, and preserving the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency." And large majorities support ending workplace anti-LGBT discrimination (83%), and "a government-wide approach to equity, civil rights, racial justice and equal opportunity" (77%).

    Those priorities will die on the table unless the new Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) seizes the moment. If he fails to deliver, Democrats will look like weaklings who abandoned voters and broke promises.

    Helping Republican Extremists

    That's how Republicans keep winning control back, despite a track record of economic disaster and despised policies. And that's how they're able to become more and more extreme. Armed with the filibuster, they have no opposition that can deliver change. In contrast, by ending the filibuster, Schumer's Senate can build support by passing legislation that betters voters' lives. Make the opposition compete on that turf, and see what happens to the pack of howling extremists.

    Republicans (and some Democrats) treat the modern-day "stealth filibuster" (60 votes required to end debate, known as "cloture") as a national sacrament breathed from the Founders' very nostrils. Incorrect. It's a later development, linked chronologically to the abandonment of post-Civil-War Reconstruction, and deployed by white supremacists to thwart Black civil rights in the 1960s.

    How to Do It

    But does Schumer's slim majority have the power to end the filibuster? Absolutely. But it's a bit tricky. The filibuster arises from the principle that the Senate may vote only after debate closes. There are three ways to close debate: 1) a motion to table (which rejects the bill), 2) unanimous consent, and 3) the later development of "cloture".

    Current Senate rules require 60 votes for cloture, which ends debate and allows the bill to proceed to a vote. Changing a Senate rule requires 67votes. So why are we having this talk? There aren't 67 Senate Democrats, so why is McConnell daring Democrats not to end the filibuster?

    There is a technical reason, and a practical reason. The technical reason is that a simple Senate majority – 50 Democrats plus the Democratic vice president – can pass procedural changes as "precedents," which are binding until Republicans have the votes to reverse them. That could end the filibuster (at least through midterms).

    But the practical reason is that once Biden-Harris priorities become law, Republicans will be unable to win national elections. McConnell knows most Republican voters are not wealthy – they "go against their own interests" because he abuses the filibuster's gridlocking effect. Democratic leaders—Schumer especially—believe that if they are patient and gentle, Republicans will compromise and let their bills pass.

    Ready to Pounce

    But Republicans won't budge. With the filibuster in place, Republicans have strong incentives to obstruct. String Democrats along by dangling poison-pill "compromises"! Wheedle for civility and bipartisanship! Suddenly, two years have passed and Republicans win midterms by claiming: "Do-nothing Democrats! They promised huge change and they gave you zero!"

    The Democrats' North Star should be this:

    The party that wants change and progress never benefits from the filibuster. Conversely, the party that wants status quo or regression always benefits from the filibuster.

    So let's stop whining "if we remove the filibuster, Republicans will hurt us when they get back in." In reality, the threat to roll back popular legislation is a strong basis for Democrats' midterm campaigns to expand their majority.And that threat could even make moderate Republicans viable in primaries. Moreover, rules did not deter Trump and McConnell from hurting ordinary Americans, and their filibuster-armed party will not voluntarily become less obstructive.

    To quote political analyst Jared Yates Sexton: "Radicalization has its own momentum." We can only fight momentum with counter-momentum. It is not only Democrats, but sober-thinking Republicans, who recognize the pit our nation will be swept into if the filibuster continues to disable Democrats from governing, and opens an anarchic vacuum."

    In contrast, if Democratic leaders restore simple-majority bill passage of bills that change voters' lives for the better, Republicans won't get control back unless their party is wholly recast. No one will want them except their tiny, shriveled up white supremacist base. And that's not enough to win.

    That is why Schumer must lead the Senate to end the filibuster by 51-vote precedent. Such is the path to true democracy, at its finest level of practice. No one will miss the filibuster. It is a tool of hate and regression, and its day is over.

    Pass great laws. Help the American people. Meet our needs. The voters will enthusiastically follow.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

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    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

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    Do you approve of Biden's presidency so far?

    Boehner says 'blame the wine' for his profane advice on what Ted Cruz should do to himself: report

    Bob Brigham
    February 25, 2021

    Former Speaker John Boehner has been drinking red wine and smoking cigarettes while recording the audio version of his memoir.

    "John Boehner has been going off script while recording the audio version of his new memoir, using expletives and asides not in the book — such as the former Republican House speaker saying, 'Oh, and Ted Cruz, go f*ck yourself,'" Axios reports. "Two sources familiar with the tapings told Axios about the asides."

    The book is titled On the House: A Washington Memoir and the audio version will cost $39.99.

    On Twitter, Boehner suggested listeners should "blame the wine" for the swearing.

    Poured myself a glass of something nice to read my audiobook. You can blame the wine for the expletives.… https://t.co/wegEH1vaq2
    — John Boehner (@John Boehner)1614260417.0

    'Chief inciter' Ted Cruz slammed by CNN's Cuomo for claiming Democrats are lawless

    Matthew Chapman
    February 25, 2021

    On Thursday, CNN's Chris Cuomo tore into Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for suggesting on the Michael Berry Show that the Democratic Party is lawless — when he helped to incite a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.

    "Those who are speaking up are as bad as the Q-kook," said Cuomo. "Literally, already trying to erase the reality of January 6th. Everything we saw and know. They say the left were to blame. They are lawless. Now, you ask, who could be that shameless? Not two months after the 6th, you're going to try to spin it like this? All those Trump flags, they didn't exist? Who else?" He played the clip of Cruz.

    "Today's Democratic Party has been radicalized, where they're, you know, they're not even willing to enforce the law against violent criminals who are committing horrific crimes," said Cruz in the clip.

    "You know, if Cruz is as smart as they say he is, maybe he's banking on being hated," said Cuomo. "Maybe he thinks there is no more line between fame and infamy, as long as people talk about you a lot and your name is out there, maybe that is power in our new politics that is largely about how to poison the other side. Remember, he is a chief inciter of the deadly insurrection committed by 'violent criminals,' to use his term. And this is not about just lying about the past, which he knows he is. It's about fueling those who may be lying in wait."

    Watch below:

    Trump Jr whines on Fox News that Republicans did not do enough to overturn the election

    Bob Brigham
    February 25, 2021

    The namesake son of former President Donald Trump complained that Republicans did not do enough to overturn the 2020 presidential campaign.

    The remarks were a continuation of the "Big Lie" that Trump won the election that resulted the January 6th insurrection and Trump's second impeachment.

    "The Republicans aren't willing to do it," Trump, Jr. argued. "They've shown that over the decades, they'd just rather lose gracefully I guess."

    "Not really a plan that I would go with, but it's what they've done," he said.

    He then praised his father for refusing to concede the fact he lost.

    "Donald Trump has shown that you don't have to do that, you can actually push back," he said of his father's action that resulted in a fatal insurrection.

    Donald Trump definitely taught us that Republicans don't lose gracefully. Good point, Don Jr. https://t.co/dG85RBvwK7
    — Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar)1614305543.0


     
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