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Originally Posted by davew
Cloture involves filibusters, are you saying every time a bill is on the floor the minority is going to stall so nothing gets passed?
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Didn't the Republicans do exactly that?
I am saying that the minority has a tool at its disposal by which they could delay all legislation indefinitely. I am saying they can use this tool to block the repeal of Obamacare and to block the confirmation of any Trump Supreme Court nominee. I also expect they will obtain some kind of compromise in return for not blocking said repeal and/or said confirmation.
Fact: Only funding bills and confirmations of Presidential nominees
other than Supreme Court nominees are immune from filibustering. This means the GOP cannot repeal Obamacare, they can only defund it and they are already doing that. It also means that they can and probably will block the confirmation of any Trump Supreme Court nominee which the Democrats find unacceptable.
Fact: It takes 60 votes for cloture to pass, not 60%. That means if less than 100 senators are present it still takes 60 votes for cloture. Thus if all 51 Republican senators are present and all 49 Democrat senators take the day off the Republicans still do not have the votes required for cloture.
Fact: A senator no longer has to keep talking in order to filibuster. He simply has to announce "I am filibustering this bill." This halts all debate on the bill in question and forestalls any vote. The senator no longer has to read the complete works of William Shakespeare (or whatever) into the Congressional Record in order to filibuster.
Fact: The Vice President or President Pro Tempore of the Senate, whichever happens to be presiding over the Senate at the time, cannot prevent a filibuster by refusing to recognize a senator whom he suspects wants to filibuster. A senator wishing to filibuster can interrupt anyone who has the floor and need only shout "filibuster" loudly enough to be heard.
Fact: It takes a 2/3 vote of senators present to suspend the 60 vote rule, but the motion to suspend the 60 vote rule can be filibustered under the 60 vote rule. I.e., if only 75 senators were present then only 51 votes would be needed for cloture, but 60 votes would still be needed to end a filibuster of of the motion to suspend.
Bottom line: if the Democrats want to block the repeal of Obamacare then can do it for at least the next two years. If the Democrats find that a Trump Supreme Court nominee is unacceptable they can block his confirmation for at least the next two years.
Google it friends, google it.
Thus ends today's civics lesson.
