04 February 2010

Saving health reform -- and democracy

Politics Plus has a fairly encouraging post up on the very murky subject of where health-care reform stands and where it goes from here. Of particular interest is the Rachel Maddow video at the bottom; near the end Maddow interviews Senator Sherrod Brown, who notes that there is rising interest in the Senate in changing the filibuster rules which require a 60-vote super-majority. If true, this is highly significant since the filibuster is being used to so flagrantly obstruct the overwhelming mandate represented by the Democrats' almost 3-to-2 majority (as Obama notes at one point, more filibusters had to be broken in 2009 than in all of the 1950s and 1960s combined). The current filibuster system is by far the greatest obstacle to democracy in this country; it must go.

4 Comments:

Blogger Ranch Chimp said...

Nice link up!

Ole Ms.Nancy (Pelosi) ... Why do I like this gal so much? :)

Obama statement's of "Finishing the Job" .... and " 20 year's of obstruction put into one" really gave me a laugh ... I like that! ( I am sure he wasnt humnored by it though, you can start to see his frustration .... it's about time) :) I never even seen that Maddow video until now.

Thanx ..........

04 February, 2010 06:24  
Blogger Sue said...

Rachel had a great show last night. The dems have to pick up the speed, less talk and more action PLEASE!!

04 February, 2010 09:25  
Blogger TomCat said...

Thanks Infidel.

Unfortiunately, the next good chance to undo the filibuster is the day the Senate opens next January.

05 February, 2010 10:38  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

I think it must have dawned on Obama that he's going to have to get things done in spite of the Republicans rather than along with them -- at least, most of them. I think his desire for bipartisanship is genuine, but he's also a smart guy.

TomCat: The thing is, the Senate rules are so arcane and convoluted that I'm not sure we even know all there is to know about exactly how the filibuster rule could be changed. Whatever statements one sees out there about how it could or couldn't be done are likely to be incomplete. Even a lot of Senators probably don't know for sure until they study the matter.

05 February, 2010 10:57  

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