The Case for Nuking the Legislative Filibuster

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Lifezette

The Case for Nuking the Legislative Filibuster

Senate procedure has yielded tyranny of the minority and subverted democracy

by Eddie Zipperer | Updated 08 May 2017 at 7:38 AM

 

Senate Rule 22 has had a rough few years. If it were a person, it would look like Bruce Willis at the end of “Die Hard” — bloody face, gunshot wound in the arm, pronounced limp. In 2013, Harry Reid and the Democrats took a chunk out of it so they could confirm Obama appointees with a simple majority instead of a three-fifths supermajority. Last month, Mitch McConnell and the Republicans roughed it up some more in order to get Justice Gorsuch confirmed. Now, Rule 22’s three-fifths supermajority only applies to legislation.

Now that Rule 22 has become the official piñata of the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell and the Republican majority would be crazy to wait and allow the next Democratic majority to finish what Harry Reid started. Republicans should change the cloture rule requirement to a simple majority for legislation, and they should do it now.