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Republicans can end the shutdown in 5 minutes. They blew up the filibuster for their tax cuts and to install judges, but they now claim they can’t do so to open the government. Odd, their priorities.
Joe, I think you’ve got a few key facts mixed up here—maybe it’s time to take a civics refresher? Let’s break down how Senate rules actually work.
The Republicans didn’t “blow up the filibuster” for their tax cuts in 2017. That bill (the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act) was passed using a process called budget reconciliation, which is a special rule allowing certain fiscal bills to bypass the filibuster and pass with just 51 votes. But reconciliation has strict limitations—it can only be used for things that directly impact the budget like taxes, spending, or debt, and it can’t be applied to regular government funding bills or continuing resolutions (CRs) to avoid shutdowns.
As for judges, you’re right that Republicans invoked the “nuclear option” to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court and other judicial nominations, allowing confirmations with a simple majority. But that change only applies to nominations, not to legislation like funding the government. The filibuster for bills is still very much alive, meaning most legislation (including CRs) needs 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster and proceed to a final vote.
Right now, with Republicans holding a slim majority in both the House and Senate, they’ve passed a bill in the House to reopen the government, and the Senate has tried to advance it at least 12 times. Each time, it fails because it doesn’t get the 60 votes needed to break the Democratic filibuster causing the shutdown to drag on. Democrats have had plenty of chances to vote yes on cloture—and “end the shutdown in 5 minutes”—they just haven’t. Rules are the rules.
Nope, I am crystal clear about the new rules of the game. Republicans think rules are for others, not themselves. I mean, Mitch McConnell created a new rule about no filling Supreme Court vacancies in an election year in 2016 to keep Merrick Garland from even being voted on, while creating another new one in 2020 to negate the previous rule to cram Amy Coney Barrett onto the Court. Bully on them for packing the Court at all costs, but at that point, the concept of Republicans caring about rules lost all credibility with me.
If your stance is that Republicans need Democratic support to open the government, then surely you would expect that Republicans to give Democrats something to gain that support in the bill. If what you learned in civics class actually held true any longer, the House would pass a different bill that would gain Democratic support. That is clearly not happening in this case. Heck, the House doesn’t even come into work anymore.
The position that Republicans are currently taking is identical to the stance that terrorist organizations would take. You will do it our way, it is the only way, there is no negotiating, there is no other option. If that’s the stance that Republicans are going to take, why bother with the rules at all, because the old rules and policies clearly don’t apply. Change the rules, own the libs, and reopen the government.
“You will regret this”, Cocaine Mitch said back then in one of his lucid moments (which were fairly abundant during trump #45). McTurtle is still and always has been neocon slime, but In between his TIAs, Mitch is a shrewd strategist who knows how to use Democrats’ tactics against them, which is exactly what he did to keep Weasel Garland out of the SCOTUS (thank Dog). He was deploying the same strategy the Dems used to deny Bork, Miers, and numerous other Republican SCOTUS nominees. Too bad they couldn’t forge a harassment claim against Gorsuch or Coney Barrett, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying! (Kavanaugh obviously)
Why do you pretend that Mitch created a “new rule” when eliminating the nuclear option was Dem-crafted three years earlier?
Joe the Slobbering Partisan Lolcow—comparing GOP to “terrorists” when his dearly beloved party seeks health care coverage for illegals–the position on which they are unwilling to budge, because, in keeping with their Jim Crow roots, they cannot win elections through their own base. At least, not anymore. But since they’ve taken over NGOs, corporate boardrooms, academia, the Fifth Estate (and eroded the credibility of all them) they have prestige, which is all the Normie IBJ establishment defenders look for in formulating their views of the world.
52% of the country sides with terrorists Joe. You party can’t try to nullify the Electoral College to save them anymore. Is that why y’all keep assassinating people? I guess it’s always self-defense, since Not-See-Ism is running amuck. The mustachioed Austrian painter wanted to radically revolutionize society through centralized governance, hyper-monitred industry, and wealth redistribution. The orange buffoon is trying to trim the bureaucracy and gets blocked at every turn by the judiciary or even his own party. So kingly.
Returning to the subject, federal workers should not be allowed to unionize. Unions are for blue collar folk–the same people the Donkeys represented as recently as the early 2010s. Those were the days.
Lauren, you used to be so much better at this. What exactly is the subject here, other than being totally unaware you’re just a puppet of the forces you claim to be against? If you’re using AI to write for you, maybe you should ask the prompt to be a little more concise.
Maybe just focus on this to help you get back on your game – if 52% of the country was for this, and everybody is loving what is happening, why are Republicans in such a hurry to redraw all the congressional district lines? Wouldn’t they be picking up representatives due to all the winning that’s been taking place?
Wow. This is going to stop these politicians in their tracks. They ought to mandate world peace next.