Rules can be changed. And the. Changed back. It’s been done before
It’s also been done for just a specific vote and changed back
The sixty vote rule is completely I remember when it was 2/3. Then it was changed to 60 for some things. Arbitrary
The rule doesn’t even need to be changed. A reasonable reading of it would allow them to do what they want on the issue. But they ought to have replaced the Democrat parliamentarian with one of their own, anyway. And even if the parliamentarian ruled against it, they could simply have Pence sit in and overrule. Dems da rules.
The GOPe is lying to us and to Trump, and so far Trump still seems deluded—thinking that the GOPe are his friends. I think he’ll figure it out, but I hope he does so soon.
60 vote rule is the filibuster majority.
2/3’s is the veto override majority.
For most of the republic’s life, the 2/3’s vote for ending a filibuster was in effect. It was attempted several times to be changed to a simple majority.
It was changed to 3/5’s shortly after the 17th Amendment was ratified (how convenient to wait until after the 17th).
Part of the comfort level in ratifying the 17th was wrapped in the 2/3’s rule which was old, respected, venerable, customary, well-used and well-known, and had withstood attacks to its existence crossing many generations of Americans.
The filibuster rule is a large part of defines the United States as a republic and not as a democracy. Changing it for convenience steers the United States towards a mob-ruled democracy.
If the democrats had changed the filibuster rule in 2009, the United States would today have single payer universal healthcare. Think about that.
Conservatives are now in a bind because Congress is not holding the cards for repeal of ACA. They are holding cards for reconciliation measures. Through reconciliation, ACA can be made defunct. However, it still exists, it is still there.
President Trump wants a chance to create a really great market-based healthcare system.
There are two ways he can do it:
1. Play hardball by having AG Sessions prosecute criminal democrats who stole ~130 billion from mutual funds to prop up Obamacare subsidies without authorization from Congress. It was purely criminal. This is what I favor because the democrats like totalitarians everywhere understand the fist. Everything else to them is fun and games.
2. Defund and wreck the ACA through reconciliation. Refuse to allow Cruz to blow up Senate rules to force through substantive changes to ACA, instead INTRODUCE A NEW BILL FOR THE SUBSTANTIVE CHANGES while carrying people’s health concerns on a continuing resolution CR under the ACA.
#2 is really hard to do. It allows the ACA to remain while the President is readying new legislation that will be much better for Americans. The President is, fortunately, a great salesman and he will need to deploy those skills with great energy.
The healthcare marketplace is presently controlled by monopoly interests. The President wants those monopoly fences taken down because healthcare costs will come down without question. But this is a substantive reform and cannot pass under reconciliation unless Cruz is allowed to wreck the Senate. Cruz as a wrecking ball is not worth it.
The better approach is for Sessions to prosecute while at the same time the President presents his sales pitch to Americans.
The beauty of Sessions prosecuting the Obama admin criminals is that it clearly exposes that Obamacare could never sustain itself unless money was stolen from private mutual funds to keep it afloat. This prosecution campaign needs to be ramped up with maximum face time.
In the meantime, while the public digests the criminality involved in propping up Obamacare, President Trump can be presenting his new market-based policies.
The takeaway for the public is that the Obama people committed crimes to keep Obamacare running with illegal payments to cronies while the President is presenting a positively sensible policy that fits with how the republic was founded.
It won’t be easy but the President will definitely take the moral and legal high ground.