Part of the Plan
This is the end of the first month of the partial federal government shutdown, day 28. It won’t take much for the government to reopen with a so-called clean continuing resolution; the House already passed it, all the Senate has to do is pass it.
And while some Democrats have crossed over to vote for it, it still falls short of the 60 votes needed. Why 60 and not a simple majority of 50?
Because the Senate has rules and requires 60 votes in order to avoid a possible filibuster—unlimited speechmaking designed to stall measures from moving forward. If you count noses and can see you’re short of 60, you either don’t try or you put it up for a certain-to-fail vote. That’s what the GOP Senate leadership has done, simply bring the measure up for a vote over and over, so far without success.
The filibuster is not in the Constitution, or in any law. It’s in the Senate rules, which can be changed at any time. But be careful of what you wish for.
When Democrats had a working majority in the Senate, they hated when Republicans would block their actions, keeping them short of 60 votes to clear a filibuster and related delays. There was talk of voting down the filibuster itself, because then they could push anything through in theory. But they did not do that, because folks would have screamed it was simply a power grab that ignored decades of tradition.
Now the Republicans have the majority—and by a wider margin than the most recent Democrat majority. Yet that 60 vote threshold is still in place, stymying GOP efforts. There’s talk that the GOP should lead a removal of the filibuster.
And I’d suggest that is not only a bad idea, but that it’s playing right into the Democrats hands. The Democrats want the filibuster removed, but they don’t want the blood on their hands for such an aggressive power grab. But if the Republicans do it, the Democrats can not only say the GOP is trampling on tradition, but then behind the scenes can rub their hands with glee about the possibilities they’ll have the next time they hold the gavel.
So caution to Republicans who look no further than passing a limited CR to reopen the government. You’ll be the minority party again at some point…and blowing up the filibuster may get you there even sooner.
