A badly broken U.S. Senate is in need of serious reform
November 11th, 2009 at 04:21pm Pat Cunningham
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 Steve Benen NAILS IT.
 An excerpt:
 Facing extraordinary crises and challenges, the United States has a legislative branch that is barely able to legislate at all. The system can see the problems, but is struggling badly to address them. The first step in changing the way Congress operates is creating the demand — most of the public has no idea that the Senate no longer operates by majority rule. Public frustration can lead to proposals, which can lead to debate, which can lead to solutions.
Entry Filed under: U.S. Senate
6 Comments Add your own
1. Neftali | November 11th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
How would you propose a change in the operating rules of the Senate? The very idea of removing a filibuster would probably in of itself be filibustered, so that won’t work.
I suppose both parties might agree to some kind of cap of the number of times per year the filibuster could be invoked. Of course that would open up a whole plethora of new problems. For example, if health care bill “A” gets filibustered, could the bill just have some minor tweaks be made only to have it up for filibuster consideration? I’m sure you see where I’m going here.
In reality, I think the Senate works just fine. If a bill really has bipartisan support, it will go through. This article, and especially Pat, act as if the Senate hasn’t passed any legislation this year. The following are bills passed that little ‘ole me can think of off the top of my head, I’m sure there are others.
Stimulus bill
Hate Crimes bill
Cash for Clunkers
Stem Cell Research
SCHIP Expansion
Lilly Ledbetter Wage bill
Tthe real point of the article is that liberals are being cry babies about not passing Socialist health care reform, massive tax hikes through cap & trade, and absolution of privacy through union card check.
2. Mr. Funfsinn | November 11th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
It never has operated by majority rule. Obama was a supporter of this when he was in the Senate when Republicans controlled the Senate. Then the fairytale began and he used his Senate seat for everything that it was worth, but representing Illinois. What kind of a deal was that? At least Hillary Clinton did something in the Senate.
3. Orlando Clay | November 11th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
The U.S. Senate may be BROKEN, but the Fox Propaganda Channel is BUSTED:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/jon-stewart-totally-busts-sean-hanni
(Yes, this is off-topic. But the FNC toadies who regularly troll this blog need to be slapped with a little dose of truth and reality to debunk the fairy tale of “fair and balanced.” Watch it and weep, Fox Nation!)
4. snuss | November 11th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Sean noted that SOME incorrect footage was used, and apologized for the error.
5. realfoxnews | November 12th, 2009 at 5:35 am
Orlando did you finally give up on Keith overbite. Whats this world coming to when somebody takes John Stewart show as for real news o that’s right you watch msnbc.
6. joe | November 12th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Now that is change the republicans can believe in.
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