Senate GOP: Just Says No

Wondering why? (0.00 / 0)

First of all (and most importantly), your graph is wrong:  According to the Senate, there were 78 cloture votes, only 31 of which failed.  It's right there on the Senate website: http://www.senate.gov/pagelayo...

That puts the 110th only slightly ahead of the previous 6 Congresses - and when one considers that there are fewer votes in the 2nd year of any given congress we're on par with previous Congresses.

Reid and his band of surrenderists filed cloture on just about every bill that moved - even though the majority of those votes were unnecessary.  See, cloture can be filed (and voted on) independently of what is actually happening on the Senate floor.

Second, one wonders why there were so many votes.  At least 41 times, Democrats tried to defund our troops in Iraq, or tie the Generals' hands in Iraq setting a dangerous withdrawal date - those bills were never going to be law.

The Democratic Senate promised bipartisanship.  Baucus and his boy Tester told Montana reporters in December of last year that "bygones were bygones" and that they were going to work with Senate Republicans to pass bipartisan legislation.  They lied.  Over and over, Reid introduced partisan, political legislation that Republicans had no say in.  They moved bills out of committee on purely partisan votes.  They blocked reasonable Republican amendments over and over again.  Instead of acting like a Majority Party, the Democrats continued to act like a minority party looking to score political points for 2008 instead of working to pass meaningful legislation with bipartisan support.

And even if Republicans had filibustered no bills in the first session of the 110th, it wouldn't have made a difference.  Cloture requires 60 votes.  A veto override - the inevitable consequence of passing bills that were fillibustered - requires 67.  These bills were not destined to become law but for Senate obstructionism.

If you want to compare apples and apples, look at the cloture votes for the 103-106th Congresses when the situation was reversed (GOP control in Congress with a Democratic President).  While Democrats filibustered more bills than the norm, the Republican congressional majority worked on bipartisan legislation (like SCHIP and Welfare Reform) to actually govern - to pass legislation that had a chance of passing.

This Congress has not governed.  They have gone after the Bush Administration at the behest of the far-left base.  As a result, they have not successfully passed any meaningful legislation at all.

You can try to make the "Do Nothing Congress" label someone else's fault, but the fact simply do not bear out that accusation.  If the Democrats want to be an effective majority, they need to abandon the minority mindset that swept them into office and start acting like a majority.

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by: MTSentinel @ Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 02:10:35 AM UTC

Just to clarify (0.00 / 0)

A cloture vote does not indicate a filibuster (it's become standard practice to file cloture for any bill you hope to vote on, even if the minority party - or the majority - has no intention of filibustering).  You have to count failed cloture votes.

By the way - the Democrats are so messed up they wind up filibustering some of their own bills.  Chris Dodd, for example, recently filibustered the Telecom Bill.  It's a bit disingenuous to suggest that every successful filibuster is Republican "obstructionism"...

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by: MTSentinel @ Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 02:25:26 AM UTC

who are you??? (0.00 / 0)

The rhetoric you spew is so completely bizarre! I mean, I know you're a partisan hack and everything -- working out of...where? DC? But this stuff is just ridiculous.

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by: Jay Stevens @ Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 06:53:35 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

and who suffers? (0.00 / 0)

It's us, the middle class.  Matt brings out a good point in just mentioning this type of thing but to take it a step further to me means asking, what is the effect of this type of approach?  Again, I must say it is us, the working middle class.  One can at least see the reasoning behind the move, it being an election year in what should mark close elections nation wide, no one wants to be on the hook for any kind of controversial bill.  Because so many different things can go into a filibuster as far as reasoning, its easier to justify such a vote based on popular opinion than it is to pick one side and justify that side.  With the upcoming election being as close as anticipated, not many will take a stand, which irritates me to no end.  Stand for your convictions!

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by: joshd @ Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 02:49:28 AM UTC