Constitution declares that each house (Senate, House) make their own rules.
The Senate, which is supposed to be the ‘cooling saucer’ to slow legislation down, has rules that prevent the majority from overwhelming the minority.
For many years from the beginning - a filibuster required ‘holding the Senate by continuing to talk.’ Around 1940’s/1950’s - Senate changed the rule to no longer require ‘holding the floor by continuing to talk’ - and to stop ‘debate’ and allow the issue to proceed to vote - it requires 60 votes to end debate.
If the 60 vote threshold is eliminated - the next time we see the House, Senate and Presidency controlled by Democrats - we will get ‘rolled’ even worse than ever.
The REAL problem is the 1974 Budget Reconciliation Act that changed the way budgets are passed....and yet - Congress DOES NOT follow the rules.
Legally (but there is no punishment for violation) - the Budget should be passed before the start of the new fiscal year (October 01). AND -the budget is actually a series of budget laws for each department. It was not the intent to pass a single budget with all departments in one jammed up omnibus spending - but that is how it is done as a ‘let’s lard up the social spending in some departments and put it with essential military spending’ - and dare the Republicans to veto/block needed military spending.
HERE IS WHAT WE NEED...a new law:
“If a new fiscal year starts without a budget in place - each department will be allowed to continue operation at 90% of the prior year’s appropriation, and will continue until a new budget is passed OR until the end of the fiscal year.”
This way - instead of Democrats saying - government shutdown or give us bloated spending...it would be the Republicans allowing the budget to be blocked - and we get a 10% cut. Sounds like a winner.
If the democrats controlled House, Senate, and Presidency, and the Republicans tried to filibuster some legislation they really wanted, do you seriously think they would hesitate a millisecond before ending the filibuster?
Remember how the filibuster rule about voting for confirming judges got nuked by Reid during the Obama administration? The filibuster is only effective against Republicans, mainly because the GOPe only wants to pretend to oppose the globalist agenda.
With all respect. We don’t need new laws. It would be a treat to see the country run by the laws on the books.
“If the 60 vote threshold is eliminated - the next time we see the House, Senate and Presidency controlled by Democrats - we will get ‘rolled’ even worse than ever.”
When Harry Reid was the Leader of the Senate, he let nothing stand in his way when changing the 60 vote requirement was to his and his Socialist colleagues’advantage. Just look back a few years at our history.
If they ever regain power in the Senate, the sanctity of rules as they exist today won’t mean a damned thing.They will empower themselves to do whatever they please by any means necessary (BAMN) and it will be CW 2.