woodsprite
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Thu Sep-04-08 11:27 AM
Original message |
Gotta check something fast... |
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Is this true? I'm trying to answer someone who fussed at me about how all the things passed thru Congress are because the Dems have control. I wanted to reply to her, but wanted to check my answer to make sure I understand it.
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"The Liberal Dems in Congress need to either talk all the DLC Dems or enough Repubs into voting with them inorder to pass something they favor. Even more if they want it to be veto-proof. In the Senate, if all the DLC Dems and the Liberal Dems vote as a block, we still need Lieberman to put us over the 50/50 mark. If Lieberman abstains or enough abstain from both sides to make it a 50/50 split and they can't break the tie, Dick Cheney gets called in to break it. So the Repubs still make the call.
So, while the Dems technically DO have control of both the House and Senate, in the Senate it is by the skin of our teeth and we need some repubs to side with us to get anything done. With the large number of DLC Dems, that doesn't happen often. In the House, it is still a slim margin, but it is larger."
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sinkingfeeling
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Thu Sep-04-08 11:32 AM
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1. The Senate rules require 60 votes to end debate and vote on legislation. The Republicans these past |
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two years have refused to allow votes on more pieces of legislation than in any other Congress.
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TheWraith
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Thu Sep-04-08 11:32 AM
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2. An added note about the Senate. |
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In the Senate, to shut down a filibuster you need 60 votes, so in effect the Republicans can block anything that doesn't have the support of at least 9 of their people, even if every Democrat plus Lieberman is lined up behind it.
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lapfog_1
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Thu Sep-04-08 11:33 AM
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3. Actually worse than that. |
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In the Senate, nothing passes (these days) without 60+ votes. That is the level needed to break a filibuster (it's a filibuster in name only, no senators bother with actually holding the floor for hours and hours). The repukes have filibustered in the Senate a record number of times (and breaking the previous record by a huge margin)... Here is a good reference on this: http://www.alternet.org/election08/88329/abuse_of_the_filibuster:_republicans_play_dirty_%27block_and_blame%27_game/
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DU
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Wed May 08th 2024, 01:33 PM
Response to Original message |