Nancy Pelosi rarely directly criticizes the Senate, despite the fact that hundreds of pieces of legislation that she has passed in the House continue to languish without even a vote in the Senate. But the other day she made some of the strongest comments to date that the filibuster needs to be eliminated and majority rule brought back to the Senate chamber.
There is nothing in the Constitution that states that 60 votes are needed to pass legislation in the Senate; the filibuster is simply an artifact of rule changes that have been made over the past few decades. The Constitution does allow for new rules at the beginning of every session, so that only 50 senators (plus VP Joe Biden who would break a tie) could simply decide to eliminate the filibuster. This would allow the Democrats to pass much of the stalled legislation on energy policy, immigration, and jobs bills in 2011 and beyond.
In fact, even though the Democrats will likely end up with significantly fewer Senate seats in 2011 (perhaps 53-54), with only a majority threshold, it is likely they would actually be able to pass significantly more liberal policies than they have been able to so far. Even with 59 votes they have had to kowtow to the rightwing Democrats and Republicans such as Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Scott Brown to reach the 60-vote threshold.
Of course none of this will matter if the Democrats don’t hold onto the House of Representatives, which they do have a serious chance of losing. But if they can hang on, and then eliminate the filibuster, the second half of Obama’s first term could be extremely productive, even with significantly diminished majorities. No doubt, this will be the major topic of discussion in Democratic circles immediately after the midterm elections.
Without filibuster reform it is likely that the entire Congressional apparatus will grind to a halt, since the Republicans are intently on derailing everything Obama does in the run-up to the 2012 elections. They have proven demonstrably that they don’t care about the problems facing the country, and only want to regain power at any cost, no matter how much suffering they leave in their wake.
It will be very hard to get 50 Democrats to eliminate the filibuster, both because of the desire to cling to tradition, and also for fear that once the Republicans get the majority again they will wreak havoc with their new power. But with significant grassroots activism, I think their hesitation and fears can be overcome. Americans want Congress to govern and to address the problems of the day. Majority rule is simple to understand and as American as apple pie; it speaks to basic notions of fairness. With the filibuster abolished, the difference between the two parties would become even more pronounced, giving the American people an even starker choice with respect to public policy between the two major parties.
This is how it should be. Elections have consequences. Let the Republicans campaign on repealing healthcare, giving tax cuts to the rich, cutting entitlements, and increasing the military budget. If that’s what people want they can vote for it.
But right now majority rule is being thwarted by an extremist fringe in the Senate that won’t even let legislation come up for a vote. As frustrating as these past 18 months have been, if this leads to the elimination of the filibuster it will have been worth it.
Jason Scorse