President Trump tweeted
yesterday morning that voters should “either elect more Republican Senators in
2018 or change the rules now to 51%,” implying that the Senate should go
nuclear once again and completely eradicate the filibuster rule. Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was quick to respond.
“That will not happen,” McConnell told The
Hill and other reporters as he rejected the president’s idea out of hand.
either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good "shutdown" in September to fix mess!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2017
The filibuster, originally a Dutch term for pirates, goes
back to the early days of the Senate per the Senate
website. The filibuster was well established by 1841 when Henry Clay
(Whig-Ky.) threatened to change Senate rules to allow the majority to vote to
end debate. Clay was rebuked by Thomas Hart Benton (Democratic-Republican- Mo.)
for his attempt to stifle the Senate’s tradition of unlimited debate.
The Senate did weaken the filibuster in 1917 when adopted
Rule 22 which established a cloture vote. A vote of two-thirds of the Senate
could end debate on a bill. The filibuster reached its current form in 1975
when the number of votes required for cloture was reduced to 60.
“There is an overwhelming majority on a bipartisan basis not
interested in changing the way the Senate operates on the legislative calendar,”
McConnell said, adding that the move would “fundamentally change the way the
Senate has worked for a very long time. We're not going to do that.”
Removing the filibuster is tempting for some Republicans due
to the slim GOP majority in the Senate. With only 52 Republican senators, at
least eight Democrat votes are required for cloture on most bills. The need for
cloture is a roadblock to much of the Republican reform agenda. In particular,
Democrats are united against the repeal of Obamacare.
Nevertheless, elimination of the filibuster would be a double-edged
sword that Republicans may soon regret. Over the past 100 years, the Democrats
have controlled the Senate more than Republicans and the filibuster has
enabled the GOP
to halt Democrat action on many issues from gun control to cap-and-trade to
public option health care. Without the filibuster, there would be no fail-safe
the next time that Democrats hold a congressional majority.
“The rules have saved us from a lot of really bad policy,”
said Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas). “I know we all are into short-term gratification,
but it's a real mistake, I think, from a legislative standpoint.”
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) agreed. “Had we not had the
filibuster, this country would have been gone a long time ago, gone straight to
socialism,” he said on CNN.
Last month, Senate Republicans eliminated the filibuster for
Supreme Court nominees, but a majority of senators say that further rule
changes are unlikely. A bipartisan group of 61 senators sent a letter last
month to Senate Leaders McConnell and Schumer (D-N.Y.) stating opposition to
further changes. The
Hill reports that Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Susan Collins
(R-Maine) have announced that they would oppose further changes. With two GOP senators
already standing against elimination of the filibuster, any further defections
would doom the plan.
For now, the filibuster appears safe, but pressure from the
conservative base continues to mount and angry voters are urging Republicans to
get things done with their majority. As frustration over Democrat
obstructionism increases, calls to eliminate the filibuster will likely
increase as well.
Originally published
on The
Resurgent
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