filibuster

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Obama Will OK Use of Reconciliation on Health Bill

Wants GOP help but will do what's needed

(Newser) - President Obama will tell Democrats tomorrow to use reconciliation to get health-care reform passed if Senate Republicans won’t cooperate, White House sources tell ABC News tonight. That option would allow a previously passed bill to be “fixed” with 51 votes (which the Democrats have) and not a filibuster-proof...

Bunning Filibuster Puts 2,000 Fed Workers on Furlough

Dept of Transportation workers placed on unpaid furlough

(Newser) - The Department of Transportation furloughed 2,000 workers without pay today, thanks to a filibuster from Republican Sen. Jim Bunning. Democrat and Republican leaders had agreed to pass a one-month extension of several standard federal programs, such as unemployment benefits, by unanimous consent, a process that makes voting unnecessary. Bunning’...

Score One for Jim Bunning
Score One for Jim Bunning
ANALYSIS
Feb 26, 2010 9:35 PM CST

Score One for Jim Bunning

Solo filibuster works: Senate Dems adjourn without extending jobless benefits

(Newser) - Republican Jim Bunning’s one-man filibuster, intended to force Democrats to account for the money that would extend by 30 days unemployment benefits for 1.2 million, looks to have worked, with the Senate adjourning for the weekend without passing the extension. Jobless and COBRA payments thus expire Sunday, Chris...

Bunning Hijacks Senate With Jobless Filibuster

'I'm trying to make a point to the people of the United States'

(Newser) - Jim Bunning held the Senate hostage last night, filibustering a move to extend federal unemployment benefits, which will otherwise expire on Sunday, for 30 days. The clash lasted until just before midnight, with Bunning complaining that Democrats had forced him to miss the Kentucky-South Carolina basketball game. But “I'll...

Showdown Looms as Abused Filibuster Frays Senate Tempers

GOB blocks routine nomination, has Dems eying reform options

(Newser) - Last night's GOP filibuster of a routine nomination to the National Labor Relation Board left Democrats livid, and considering reforms to stop a filibuster-happy GOP from crippling the Senate. "I'm in my thirty-sixth year. I've never seen anything like it," Sen. Pat Leahy told the Huffington Post . Leahy...

Mighty America Descends Into Farce
Mighty America Descends
Into Farce
PAUL KRUGMAN
Feb 8, 2010 8:20 AM CST

Mighty America Descends Into Farce

Paralyzing GOP tactics make us look like 18th-century Poland

(Newser) - When Richard Shelby put a hold on all outstanding Obama nominees last week, it reminded Paul Krugman of 18th-century Poland. Back then, the country’s legislature was run by unanimous consent, so anyone could block any legislation by shouting, “I do not allow!” Sound familiar? The US Senate,...

Patrick Kennedy Slams Scott Brown

Ted Kennedy's son calls successor's candidacy a 'joke'

(Newser) - Scott Brown sped up his swearing-in because despite having touted his independence during his Senate campaign, "he's in the tank for the Republicans," says Patrick Kennedy, predecessor Ted Kennedy's son. Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island congressman, says Brown suddenly demanded to be seated a week earlier than previously...

Obama Must Use 'Shame,' GOP's 'Sketchy Bladders'

Democrats should make GOP pay for being obstructionists

(Newser) - With bipartisanship dead and Republicans in love with the filibuster, Barack Obama has few weapons. Marc Ambinder surveys the landscape and comes up with a measly two—shame and the "sketchy bladders" of old white Republicans. First, Obama must "shame Republicans. Increase the costs of not doing business"...

Obama to Democrats: 'We Still Have to Lead'

President reminds senators they still have a big majority

(Newser) - President Obama implored Senate Democrats today to stay aggressive in pushing their agenda despite the loss of one vital seat, saying: "We still have to lead." Speaking to his party's senators at their strategy conference, Obama reminded Democrats they still hold a 59-41 majority. For Democrats searching for...

GOP Filibusters Routine Obama Nomination

All 60 Senate Dems needed to confirm Labor Department solicitor general

(Newser) - It took all 60 Senate Democrats yesterday to break a filibuster over the confirmation of a fairly run-of-the-mill mid-level Obama appointee. New York Labor Commissioner Patricia Smith is hardly a liberal radical—she has support from her state’s Chamber of Commerce, and several New York Republicans in the House—...

Udall Launches New Assault on Filibuster

Proposes law allowing Senate to regularly change rules

(Newser) - New Mexico Democrat Tom Udall has introduced a resolution that could, in the unlikely event that it passes, eliminate the Senate’s dreaded filibuster. Udall’s law doesn’t specifically end the filibuster; rather, it calls for the Senate to change its rules every two years based on a simple...

ND Sen. Dorgan Won't Run for Re-Election

Term is up this year; move a 'total stunner' to fellow Democrats

(Newser) - In a move one Democratic aide called a “total stunner,” North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan announced today that he won’t run for re-election this fall. Dorgan, 68, says “this decision does not relate to any dissatisfaction that I have about serving in the Senate,” and...

Reid Will Force Senate Vote on TSA Nominee

Sen. DeMint blocking transportation chief over unionization

(Newser) - Harry Reid plans a parliamentary move of his own to break Jim DeMint's hold on the nominee to run the Transportation Security Administration. When the Senate returns the week of Jan. 19, Reid will hold a vote to end DeMint's filibuster on the nomination of Erroll Southers, reports Talking Points...

The Filibuster Must Be Stopped
 The Filibuster Must Be Stopped 
Paul Krugman
Dec 21, 2009 8:17 AM CST

The Filibuster Must Be Stopped

The country was never intended to have supermajority rule

(Newser) - Health care reform shouldn’t have been a close vote. The Democrats campaigned on health care and won big, which “in any other advanced democracy” would have given them the power to enact reforms, writes Paul Krugman of the New York Times. But because Democrats needed 60 votes to...

Health Care Bill Clears Crucial Senate Test

Dems hail first key step in 'historic victory'

(Newser) - A filibuster strategy by Senate Republicans against the health care reform bill was shot down early this morning in a move that clearly signals the measure's likely passage before Christmas. The Senate voted 60-40 for cloture to short-circuit a GOP tactic aimed at killing a package of changes to the...

Senate Bickers as Storm Bears Down on DC
 Senate Bickers as Storm 
 Bears Down on DC 
Tick ... tICK ... tICK ...
Dec 18, 2009 4:49 PM CST

Senate Bickers as Storm Bears Down on DC

Republicans vow to stall; Reid targets Christmas Eve health care vote

(Newser) - Even as Harry Reid plans for a Christmas Eve vote on the Senate health care bill, Republicans are vowing to stall, and a massive winter storm is roaring northeast from the Gulf of Mexico with Washington directly in its path. " It is our intention not to pass this bill...

Dems Block GOP War Bill Filibuster

Gates slams tactic to delay health bill

(Newser) - Senate Democrats beat back a Republican attempt to filibuster a huge Pentagon spending bill in a post-midnight session last night. Republican success would have forced the government to seek a new stopgap way to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, delaying health care legislation in the process. Three Republicans...

Reid Won't Get Health Care Vote for Christmas

Unless Ben Nelson and Republicans stop playing Scrooge

(Newser) - All Harry Reid wants for Christmas is a health care reform vote, but he’s more likely to end up with coal. Republicans are pulling out every procedural trick in the book to make sure Democrats miss their self-imposed deadline—yesterday, they forced the Senate clerk to read a 767-page...

Lieberman's Big Filibuster Flip
 Lieberman's Big Filibuster Flip 
Rachel Maddow
Dec 15, 2009 9:19 AM CST

Lieberman's Big Filibuster Flip

Before using his power to kill health care, Lieberman decried it

(Newser) - Joe Lieberman may be America’s top filibusterer right now, but once upon a time he hated the filibuster, calling on senators to give up some individual power, Rachel Maddow demonstrated in delicious detail last night. Back in 1995, Lieberman co-sponsored a bill with Tom Harkin to kill the filibuster...

Reid Compares Health-Reform Opponents to Segregationists

... to predictably furious Republican reaction

(Newser) - Not that the health-reform debate needed more fuel for its rancorous fire, but Democrat Harry Reid tossed some on today anyway, comparing conservatives who would block the current measure to those who tried to stop the emancipation of slaves and universal suffrage. The GOP reaction was swift and angry, with...

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