Free Republic

Those putting party over country try to conceal their votes from the public. Democratic senators supporting President Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal with Iran are cowards. They know that a majority of Americans oppose the deal. Thus, they are running for cover to avoid going on the record and voting against a resolution disapproving the deal. A filibuster to block a vote on the merits altogether is the Democratic Senate caucus’s preferred way out. The White House is reportedly pushing the filibuster strategy even though Obama is virtually certain to have enough votes to sustain a veto of a resolution of...

Washington, D.C.— Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statements on reports that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid may filibuster a Senate vote on the Iran Nuclear Deal: “First, the president did an end-run around the Constitution by refusing to submit the Iran deal as a treaty requiring a two-thirds vote of the Senate for approval. Now Harry Reid wants to deny the American people a voice entirely by blocking an up-or-down vote on this terrible deal. If Harry Reid has his way, Congress won’t even get the little oversight we were provided in Corker-Cardin. He is obstructing because...

The consolation prize in the great Senate GOP sellout on the Iran deal was supposed to be the opportunity it created to embarrass Obama. The fear was that if Republicans insisted on two-thirds approval of the deal for ratification, as the Constitution’s Treaty Clause requires, King Barack would simply reassure the public that this wasn’t technically a treaty and proceed to implement the agreement under his own executive authority. Heads he wins, tails you lose. That’s life in post-republic America. (And if you like that model, wait until President Trump is sworn in.) So Bob Corker and McConnell decided...

Democrats will try to mount a filibuster to block the Iran nuclear deal from even having to reach President Obama’s desk for a veto, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid signaled Sunday in a statement. He and his party colleagues already have enough committed supporters that they would be able to sustain an Obama veto and allow the Iran deal to proceed, but a filibuster would be an even bigger coup, halting the issue earlier in the process and heading off a protracted — and potentially politically costly — veto fight. “I recently informed Senator McConnell that after a period of...

President Barack Obama’s almost certain to get the Iran nuclear deal — but whether he gets there by filibuster or sustained veto could make all the difference. A Democratic filibuster in the Senate would be a clear victory for the president, allowing Obama to say that for all the political noise there wasn’t enough actual opposition to the nuclear agreement with the Islamic republic to even get to a final vote.

Scott Walker on Saturday night said that if it were necessary to repeal President Obama's healthcare law, he would urge Republican senators to use the so-called nuclear option to end the filibuster. After formal remarks at the Western Conservative Summit, Walker sat down with talk radio host and author Hugh Hewitt for an onstage interview. "I heard you say Obamacare will be repealed and replaced," Hewitt said. "There are a lot of Republican senators who love the filibuster. Rick Santorum told me you don't need to break the filibuster to repeal Obamacare. But if it's necessary to do so, will...

I am having an argument with a Lib, his stance is that the Repubs have filibustered all veterans bills in the senate, when I look at the congressional record, it seems the bill never got out of committee. However, there are a mountain of websites claiming the repubs are filibustering vets, for example: Some of the bills that they filibustered - bills that would have helped American people in this difficult economy: H.R. 12 - Paycheck Fairness Act H.R. 448 -- Elder Abuse Victims Act H.R. 466 - Wounded Veteran Job Security Act H.R. 515 - Radioactive Import Deterrence Act...

Sen. Rand Paul took to the Senate floor to launch a “filibuster” of a bill to reauthorize a major government surveillance program. One problem: It’s not actually a filibuster. With key parts of the PATRIOT Act set to expire at the end of the month — and the Senate set to skip town at the end of the week — Paul took to the floor at about 1:15 p.m. to expound on his staunch opposition to government surveillance. The 2016 Republican candidate has made government surveillance a key tenet of his quest for the White House and threatened last week...

Well, he’ll try to filibuster it, but it might be harder than it seems. Sen. Rand Paul told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on New Day that Senate rules complicate filibusters more than people know, but he intends to do what he can to block consideration of any extension of the Patriot Act, or even the reform package called the Freedom Act that passed the House on a wide bipartisan basis. That may leave his fellow Kentuckian Mitch McConnell in a very tight spot:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO ALISYN CAMEROTA: Quickly I want to ask you about the vote to...

Senate Democrats on Tuesday delivered a stinging blow to President Obama’s trade agenda by voting to prevent the chamber from picking up fast-track legislation. A motion to cut off a filibuster and proceed to the trade bill fell short of a 60-vote hurdle in the 52-45 vote. Sen. Tom Carper (Del.) was the only Democrat to back it. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) switched his vote from yes to no to reserve his ability to return to the measure at a later date. Fast-track is a top legislative priority for the White House, but it has run into significant...

WASHINGTON — Congress is sending President Obama a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security through the end of the budget year, without overturning the president’s immigration policies. The House on Tuesday voted 257-167 for the measure that Obama is expected to sign. Without action, funding for the department would have expired Friday at midnight.

Last week, Mark Levin, a Constitutional expert, suggested that the GOP senators should suspend the filibuster. There is nothing in the Constitution which requires the arcane filibuster rules. Besides we need a weapon to defend the citizens against Obama's lawlessness. Even if Obama Vetoes the DHS bill without Amnesty, the American people will see the Dems defending Obama's lawlessness if they do not vote to override the veto. Let's tell our Senators to cut to the chase and suspend the filibuster and pass the House version of DHS without Amnesty. The GOP promised the electorate that they would stop Amnesty...

I sent the following to Se. McConnell in hopes that he will consider it a viable option. Dear Senator McConnell, Presently the democrats are filibustering in order to prevent discussion on the DHS funding bill passed by the House. The democrats want funding for the illegal immigration executive amnesty order, while the Republicans are against it, and rightly so. I suggest employing the nuclear option in this battle. It is justified by holding a news conference and telling the citizens of the US that the security of our Country is too important to be held hostage by the liberal democrats....

For weeks, Harry Reid and his Senate Democratic minority -- with the explicit blessing of the White House -- have been blocking all debate on a House-passed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The House legislation provides full appropriations for DHS, with the small exception of stripping out funds targeted for the implementation President Obama's unpopular and illegal (according to both a federal judge and Obama himself) executive amnesty fiat. Democrats in the upper chamber had already filibustered three attempts to take up, discuss, or amend the House's bill. Last night witnessed round four. Kudos to CNN for...

To invoke, or not to invoke, the "Reid Rule?" That is the singe most important question facing Senate Republicans. Simply put, if destroying what is left of the Senate's tradition of the filibuster would save the country from terrible crises and hardship, almost every senator of both parties would vote to abolish it. Indeed, all but one of the currently serving Senate Democrats who also served in 2013 voted with their leader to break the filibuster rule by simple majority, thus creating "the Reid Rule" that the rules of the Senate can be modified by a simple majority of the...

Senate Democrats are using the filibuster to try and embarrass the GOP into backing down on the House's version of a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, a version which would roll back the president's unconstitutional unilateralism on immigration reform. Congressional Republicans are trying to put on a show of unity, but the fissures are already evident. The demands from conservative activist leadership and the grassroots' legions for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to invoke "the Reid Rule" and smash what's left of the Senate filibuster using the same procedural maneuver that Harry Reid used to kill the...

There is a significant test coming up for the new Republican majority in the Senate, and if they have any hope of sustaining the support of conservatives and like minded independents who propelled them back into the driver’s seat it is one they must pass. On their first attempt at passing a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (while cutting off funding for executive amnesty) the Democrats filibustered and shut the deal down in the Senate. This led to two names you don’t normally see in the same sentence addressing the issue. Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas)...

Two senators from very different wings of the Republican party united to outline how the GOP might counter a Democratic filibuster of the House bill that denies funding for President Obama’s immigration executive orders. Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Senator Susan Collins (R., Maine) argued during a Senate GOP lunch that if Democrats filibuster the Department of Homeland Security funding bill — which blocks implementation of Obama’s 2012 deferred action program and his November 2014 “adult amnesty” — Republicans should respond by blocking only the 2014 orders. The thinking, according to a GOP senator who was in the lunch,...

**SNIP** Sharpton said, “This is the largest majority Republicans have had since the 1920s, and what will happen, and how we deal with our interests, when we have both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives dominated by the Republicans — one, we need to realize and recognize, had we voted like we should have we wouldn’t be here,” he said. “But secondly, all is not lost, the president can use veto power, which he already said he is going to do about the Keystone Pipeline legislation, and executive action.” “Even though the legislature is tied down, the executive...

Democrats launched the first filibuster of the new Congress on Thursday, objecting to the GOP’s effort to try to bring the Keystone XL pipeline bill to the floor early next week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to schedule action early next week on the bill, and promised an open process, including allowing both sides to offer amendments to the bill — an attempt to break with the previous few years, when Democrats controlled the floor and kept a tight lid on amendments. But Democrats objected to Mr. McConnell’s request, forcing him to begin the procedure for breaking a filibuster.