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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNot Just Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. A Handful of Cowardly Democrats Are Letting Them Front This
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a37669282/joe-manchin-kyrsten-sinema-reconciliation-filibuster/There's nothing about the filibuster or the parliamentarian in the Constitution. They're only roadblocks because some have chosen to believe in them, and they could be gone in a moment.
Right now, the Democratic majority is tied up in knots because too many of its members have entangled themselves comfortably in customs and traditions so that a serious response to serious national crises are beyond the reach of the upper chamber of the Congress. On Sunday, the Senates parliamentarian, an official of no real constitutional authority, declared that immigration reform could not be included in the reconciliation package. From Politico:
The parliamentarian underscored the power of the chamber's rules to clip Democratic ambitions on Sunday night, ruling against the majority party's bid to include immigration reform in its social spending bill. That isn't the only call Democrats are anxious about getting: They'll likely also need parliamentarian approval to include provisions on labor, clean energy and drug pricing in their party-line bill. The Senate Budget Committee declined to comment about their strategy for winning those go-aheads. What the parliamentarian lets stay or forces out of the multitrillion-dollar measure could have enormous consequences for its ultimate success and Bidens legacy. And the referee has stymied Democrats plans before, most notably when she ruled out a minimum wage hike for a coronavirus aid bill they passed earlier this year using reconciliation.
And the Democratic majority is going to go along with this, just as it is going to go along with preserving the filibuster, because a handful of cowardly senators are letting Senator Joe Manchin front for them. In fact, the parliamentarians ruling is purely advisory, just as the filibuster is purely a matter of custom, not of law, and certainly not of the Constitution.
These are ghosts in the machine, spectral roadblocks given substance only through the fact that some people believe in them. A Senate majority could do away with the filibuster with 51 votes. The vice president could dismiss the parliamentarians position out of hand. Certainly, Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence, respectively, would have hand-waved their way past both barriers. But Democrats dont do that. Neither do they seem to care enough about voting rights even to carve out an exception to the filibuster to pass a bill that Joe Manchin designed. This isnt just Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. There are other Democratic senators in the weeds here. Complicity is the most enervating form of corruption there is.
The article - disappointingly - doesn't NAME THEM ALL. I want ALL THEIR NAMES. Don't you?
no_hypocrisy
(46,095 posts)One of the "Problem Makers" (misnamed Problem Solvers).
LonePirate
(13,420 posts)no_hypocrisy
(46,095 posts)I do see him as supportive of the positions of Sinema and Manchin, albeit in another Chamber.
Celerity
(43,349 posts)who are working or worked with Manchin and Sinema, outside lobbying groups for fossil fuels, big pharma, etc etc etc to gut the hell out of both infrastructure bills.
Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey
Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia
Filemon Vela of Texas
Jared Golden of Maine
Henry Cuellar of Texas
Vicente Gonzalez of Texas
Ed Case of Hawaii
Jim Costa of California
Kurt Schrader of Oregon
Stephanie Murphy of Florida
It is 10 now, as Stephanie Murphy (FL-7) another Problem Solvers member, joined the 9 original obstructionists at the end of August.
She is one of the most conservative Dems in the House Caucus (one of only 6 current Dems who had both substantial amounts of votes and who voted with Trump over 50% of the time in the 115th House, along with Henry Cuellar, Conor Lamb, (both of whom were close to 70% in terms of voting with Trump), Tom O'Halleran, and Josh Gottheimer, plus the 'now in the Senate' Sinema ).
Murphy is the chair of the Blue Dogs as well.
She is one of only ten 'trifecta' members, meaning she belongs to all 3 centrist/conservative Dem Caucuses:
Blue Dog Coalition
New Democrat Coalition
Problem Solvers Caucus
along with Carolyn Bourdeaux, Tom O'Halleran, Lou Correa, Jim Costa, Brad Schneider, Josh Gottheimer, Kurt Schrader, Vicente Gonzalez, and Abigail Spanberger.
Many of all the names mentioned above have been openly active in the recent past in trying to take down Pelosi as Speaker as well.
bullwinkle428
(20,629 posts)Shaheen...maybe a few others.
doc03
(35,332 posts)people. The day they take over the House it will be impeachment of both the President and VP, endless investigations and bills to rig the vote. If we don't at least keep the Senate it is over for democracy.
It's a replay of Obama's administration. The Republicans shut everything down the voters vote Democrats out because they didn't get everything were promised.
CrispyQ
(36,462 posts)If we don't hold one chamber, we're sunk.
CrispyQ
(36,462 posts)10 want to eliminate it
15 are committed to changing it
14 are open to changing it
2 are opposed
FBaggins
(26,735 posts)That implies that there are nine Democrats who are actively avoiding the question. Many/most are probably letting Manchin/Sinema take the heat for them.
CrispyQ
(36,462 posts)It's like our side isn't willing to avail themselves of all the tools to do what needs to be done. New voters are fickle voters. We're going to have to work like hell to get all those 81 million voters back to the polls in 2022, while the other side is all fired up on hate & eager to vote.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)These people need to come under extremely heavy pressure.
FBaggins
(26,735 posts)Their goal is to let the two know roadblocks keep the heat off the rest of them.
Reporter - Senator
will you vote to get rid of the filibuster or at least create a carve-out for constitutional issues like voting rights?
Senator - I want to make clear that i oppose the way that Republicans are abusing Senate rules. Something definitely has to change. But I cant tell you how I would vote on a specific action until I see what were actually voting on
Report - Ummmm
.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)and 2 opposed. However, the WaPo article was updated August 2, we're down a road a bit, and I don't see any more recent articles about changes.
Btw, calling variations in ideology corruption and people whose opinions vary from one's own renegades is not helpful. And it's anti-democracy -- as if the Republicans need help blowing it up from the left.
Representative government and the democratic process exist to give people who disagree a process for settling on action that'll usually thrill no faction while working for most. There was never a time when the people who elect legislators to represent them didn't send them with very different to-do lists. That's what negotiations are for.