I’m starting to wonder if our Senate as it works right now can really still play a role in governing this country, or if it has become an obsolete relic of an earlier time. With hundreds of bills stalled in the Senate, now one single Senator is able to block legislation supported by 99 others — and, incredibly, there seems to be nothing they can do about it.
These are a few related issues; all of which come down to abuse of parliamentary tactics in an increasingly contentious environment. First, consider the filibuster, and this fact: There have been “the same number of cloture motions between January 2009 and today as between World War I and the moon landing.” While the filibuster is a long-standing procedure in the Senate, it has never been used with this intensity before, and it’s pushing the limits of what the Senate can withstand.
Second is the hold, which Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning is currently using to hold hostage an extension of employment benefits. Bunning is one single Senator, but he is stopping the entire Senate from moving forward with crucial business. As such, over a million have lost unemployment benefits, thousands of contractors for the Department of Transportation have had to be furloughed, and now the hold has triggered a sharp decline in MediCare reimbursements. Our government seems to be coming apart at the seems from the stubbornness of a single individual.
Finally, there’s the issue of reconciliation. It is the one procedure that can cut through the Senate’s red tape, but Republicans who supported reconciliation when they were in power are now acting as if this is some sort of new, unprecedented tactic. Lamar Alexander even went so far as to say it would “end the Senate.” While that’s an absurd statement, I admit that I’m starting to find myself thinking that wouldn’t be such a terrible thing.
Now here's a Senator that deserves support
Sen. Bernie Sanders Socialist Democrat from VT
Sanders is a self-described democratic socialist, but because he does not belong to a formal political party, he appears as an independent on the ballot. He is the first person elected to the U.S. Senate to identify as a socialist. Sanders caucuses with the Democratic Party and is counted as a Democrat for the purposes of committee assignments. He was also the only independent member of the House during much of his service there.
Mark
