If a filibuster happens in the forest and no one is told about it, did it really happen?
The GOP is said to be ready to filibuster the bill extending jobless benefits today. Will this be reported as the national emergency that it is? Will this be reported as a filibuster? Will this even be reported?
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“But.” Everything you read about the filibuster talks about how important the filibuster is, allowing a minority to retain some power over abuse by a majority… and then it says, “But.”
For example, the Camden, N.J., Courier Post editorial today, "Alter filibuster rules in Senate," reads:
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Republicans filibustered an appeals court nominee today. This is, of course, not surprising. What is surprising is that news outlets are telling the public!
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Republicans have obstructed the confirmation of unprecedented numbers of Obama judicial nominees. Vacancies have grown so bad that even Justice Roberts, the partisan Chief Justice, urged the Senate to act, since the undermanned courts were getting overwhelmed. But the ruling yesterday by a Federal District Court Judge in Florida, declaring the entire health care reform [...]
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Less than a week after the U.S. Census Bureau reported record levels of poverty in the United States, congressional leaders have informed members of a progressive jobs coalition that there will not be a vote before the November elections on a jobs program for low-income people that is set to expire on September 30. In [...]
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It happened again today. The Washington Post says the Democrats lost in the US Senate because they were “unable to muster the 60 votes needed.” As a result, states won’t get help paying for Medicaid, long term unemployed won’t get relief, and hedge fund managers will continue to enjoy their $35 billion loophole that could [...]
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The latest bit of obstruction being staged by a Senate conservative, done in the name of limiting federal spending, is going to end up costing cash-strapped states millions of dollars as well as potentially causing millions of workers to lose their unemployment benefits. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., earlier today continued his blockage of an extension [...]
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In the states represented by the four senators in the Democratic caucus who are threatening progress on health care reform, there are almost 2 million people without health insurance, according to state-by-state health care reform impact reports released by the Department of Health and Human Services. These states, and the senators who represent them, are [...]
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The Republican strategy of obstruction is working. The latest Pew poll shows Congressional Favorability Falls to 24-Year Low Former Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss, didn’t hide his goals. “The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail…and so far it’s working for us,” he told Roll Call in April of 2007. We call the [...]
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In their last obstruction, Mitch “Dr. No” McConnell’s Senate Republicans blocked a bridge loan for the auto companies, unwilling even to sustain them long enough for a new administration to sculpt a responsible response to their crisis. What was the sticking point? It wasn’t getting rid of the CEOs that drove the companies into the [...]
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