{"id":19573,"date":"2013-11-26T17:47:14","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T22:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=19573"},"modified":"2013-11-26T17:47:14","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T22:47:14","slug":"a-way-to-win-the-filibuster-fallout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/19573\/a-way-to-win-the-filibuster-fallout\/","title":{"rendered":"A Way to Win the Filibuster Fallout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quin has a must-read idea<\/a> about how to turn Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid\u2019s (D-NV) filibuster nonsense into a political winner for the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

Sketched out as only a savvy former congressional staff member could do, Quin\u2019s idea calls on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to hold a joint press conference to announce:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The role the filibuster has played in Senate deliberations
\n2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How Republicans on both sides of the capitol could respond with tactics that would grind legislative business to a halt
\n3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or instead, with a compromise endorsed by 19 current and former Senate Democrats that preserves the filibuster, but in a form more in service to the public good<\/p>\n

The proposed change would \u201cturn the group filibuster back into a tool for extended debate \u2013 to try to rally public support \u2013 rather than a means of permanent obstruction,\u201d writes Quin at NRO. \u201cBy serially ratcheting down the number of votes needed to invoke cloture \u2013 from 60 to 57 \u2013 54 to 51, on successive attempts \u2013 the rule in effect would force opponents of a bill or nomination to show that their arguments are gaining more adherents as time progresses, thus showing that they might actually gain the support of an awakening public.\u201d<\/p>\n

For me, the attractiveness of Quin\u2019s idea is its attempt to re-inject much-needed attention on the deliberative process in lawmaking. For the first time in years, the Senate \u2013 and especially the Republican bench \u2013 boasts a bevy of thoughtful debaters like Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY). Rather than speechmaking marathons where one person must speak until exhausted, America would be better served hearing, for example, Cruz and Tim Kaine (D-VA) debate immigration policy.<\/p>\n

The possibilities abound. Imagine a debate between Paul and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on fiscal and monetary policy. Or between Lee and a Democrat-to-be-determined on any clause in the Constitution. By making the filibuster vote threshold drop with every round of voting, opponents of a measure must either win converts or lose the majority. Either way, the legislative process is made better because the senators elected to represent the public are putting their reasons on the record.<\/p>\n

My quick summary doesn\u2019t do enough justice to Quin\u2019s piece, which you can read here<\/a>. At a time when so much of government seems broken, it is refreshing to read a piece that offers a workable solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quin has a must-read idea about how to turn Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid\u2019s (D-NV) filibuster nonsense into a political winner for the Republican Party. Sketched out as only a savvy former congressional staff member could do, Quin\u2019s idea calls on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to hold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[84,518,77,1057,2087,178],"class_list":["post-19573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-congress","tag-filibuster","tag-harry-reid","tag-john-boehner","tag-mitch-mcconnell","tag-u-s-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19573"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19585,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19573\/revisions\/19585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}