There's something rotten in the U.S. Senate. The Minority Leader, enabled by his caucus, has set forth on a path of obstruction. Now, there are only 40 GOPers and the Democrats have 60 in their caucus, so any GOP filibuster can be busted. Unfortunately, members of that Democratic caucus aid and abet the GOPers. Exhibit A was the recent attempt to reform the health care system.
Ezra Klein outlined a couple of ideas being floated by Senators to end the gridlock and obstructionist tactics in the Senate.
Tom Harkin, the veteran Iowa Democrat who chairs the Senate's influential Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, was even more dismayed by recent events. His efforts to curb the filibuster began in the 1990s, when he was in the minority. "People say I only worry about this because I'm in the majority," he said Tuesday. "But I come at this with clean hands!" Back then, his partner in the effort to reform the filibuster was Lieberman. "The filibuster," Lieberman said at the time, "has become not only an obstacle to accomplishment here, but also a symbol of a lot that ails Washington today." Lieberman has since stopped worrying and learned to love obstructionism. But Harkin hasn't.This kind of change would require Senators to look beyond their own narrow interests -- and act in the best interest of the nation. I don't see that happen given the current make up of the Senate. Does anyone?
This isn't just a Democratic concern, though Democrats, being in the majority, are the ones raising it now. In 2005, Senate majority leader Bill Frist nearly shut the chamber down over the Democratic habit of filibustering George W. Bush's judicial nominees. "This filibuster is nothing less than a formula for tyranny by the minority," he said at the time.
Potential solutions abound. Harkin would eliminate the filibuster while still protecting the minority's right to debate. Under his proposal, bills would initially require 60 votes to pass. Three days later, that threshold would fall to 57. Three days after that, 54. And three days after that, 51. Merkley has some other ideas. One is to attract Republicans to the project by phasing the filibuster out six or eight years in the future, when we can't predict which party will initially benefit.
