From the New York Times this morning:
- The Pfizer and Moderna shots appear to work against the variants found in New York, Britain and South Africa.
- Women in the U.S. are getting vaccinated at a higher rate than men.
- The Senate passed a bill to help law enforcement agencies review hate crimes against Asian-Americans.
- The House voted along party lines to grant statehood to Washington, D.C., a Democratic priority that faces obstacles in the Senate.
Is this another Democratic ploy for something that just will not happen? What about global warming, gun control, minimum wage and whole slew of other liberal dreams? No way because of something called a filibuster in the U.S. Senate. But it only takes a majority vote to abolish filibuster. Why not?
This is easier said than understood, but:
The nuclear option leverages the fact that a new precedent can be created by a senator raising a point of order, or claiming that a Senate rule is being violated. If the presiding officer (typically a member of the Senate) agrees, that ruling establishes a new precedent. If the presiding officer disagrees, another senator can appeal the ruling of the chair. If a majority of the Senate votes to reverse the decision of the chair, then the opposite of the chair’s ruling becomes the new precedent.
The filibuster is a parliamentary procedure to obstruct and delay decision-making.
- It is undemocratic.
- Nothing new, for it was used in Ancient Rome.
- However, the framers of the U.S. Constitution did not include this process, for they were afraid of ruling by a minority.
- The filibuster was created in the early 1800's, but abolished in the House in 1893.
- It was used in the Senate in Civil War matters and against Civil Rights, but weakened from 2/3rds to 3/5th of the membership in 1975. That is, unless 60% of the current Senate approves, nothing much will happen.
However, over time, exceptions have regularly be added.- In 2013 and 2017 the filibuster was removed for executive branch positions and federal judgeships.
- Budget reconciliation was created in 1974, allowing spending, revenue and national debt matters to pass once/year by a simple majority.
- This is the avenue President Biden used for his $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package, and will apply for the $2.2 trillion infrastructure plan.
- The Senate Parliamentarian (lady in green above, Elizabeth MacDonough) ruled on April 4 that Biden has at least two, and probably more, opportunities to use this procedure this year.
However, for DC statehood, padding the Supreme Court, immigration matters, global warming, gun rights control, racial justice and raising the minimum wage require abolishing the filibuster. All it takes is a simple majority vote, but:
- Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he will not vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster under any circumstances.
- President Joe Biden seems to have backtracked on this option.
As of today, Manchin is standing in the way of abolishing the filibuster. If he can be persuaded to change his mind, the filibuster can be abolished. Simple as that. At this point, the best the Democrats can expect is for Joe Manchin to help "reform" the filibuster.
To close, here is Trevor Noah of The Daily Show on the filibuster. If everything above confused you, perhaps this tutorial will help.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to all-time high of 34,043.
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