Filibusters and Republican Gridlock

Filibusters have always been a desperate last-ditch means of protecting the minority in the U.S. Senate from the power of the majority. Since the Democrats have taken-over the Senate, however, the filibuster by Republicans has changed into to a continuing program of obstruction. There no longer are all-night sessions and drawn-out speeches. Now, the Republicans simply notify the Democrats that they are filibustering legislation. It takes 60 votes in the Senate to invoke cloture and break a filibuster.

Until recently, the filibuster had rarely been used by the minority in the Senate. Although Southern senators occasionally resorted to the filibuster to block civil rights legislation, it was not until the Clinton Administration that it came into regular use. It was during the Clinton years that 32 filibusters were employed to kill a variety of presidential initiatives. Between 1999 and 2007, the number of Senate filibusters varied between 20 and 37 per session.

The filibuster has now become the chief weapon of the Republicans. Republicans in the Senate have filibustered 80 pieces of legislation in the current session of Congress. That is an all-time record, and the session isn't over yet. It appears that the Republicans intend to try and block any legislation dealing with healthcare reform, global warming, cap-and-trade, and a number of other spending issues. But the Democrats have a remedy. Because these are budgetary items, they can be included in the “Budget Reconciliation” process.

Budget Reconciliation in the Senate is intended to allow a budget bill to be considered without being subject to filibuster. All that is needed for passage of a budget is a simple majority in both houses of Congress.

Republicans have become incandescent with anger about the prospect of Democrats using the budget reconciliation process to pass major spending bills. Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) said: “In this post-partisan time of Barack Obama, we’re seeing a little Chicago politics. They steamroller those who disagree with them, then, I guess in Chicago, they coat them in cement and drop them in the river.” Sen. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), (who defended using the budget reconciliation procedure to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling in 2005), said any use of budget reconciliation by President Obama would be “regarded as an act of violence” against Republicans. Other GOP senators have fulminated against budget reconciliation, including Senators Kyl (R-AZ) and Hatch (R-UT). The Republicans have threatened that if the Democrats use the budget reconciliation process to pass spending bills, they will shut down the government.

I have accused Republican legislators of being hypocrites. That may offend some people, but examination of the record supports my charge. A good example is the condemnation of Democratic proposals to use the budget reconciliation process. Despite their howls against the Democrats, Republicans employed the same procedure to pass a number of major Bush agenda items (which were supported by all four aforementioned Senators and opposed by Democrats) including the 2001 Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, the 2003 Bush tax cuts, the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, and The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.

Budget reconciliation has been used by several other Republican presidents, including Reagan and Bush Sr., to get around Democratic opposition. In fact, Republicans — with Bond and Gregg leading the charge — were instrumental in pushing through key provisions of the Republican “Contract with America” using budget reconciliation.

If I were President Obama and Majority Leader Reid, I would push forward with budget reconciliation on the major spending bills, and let the obstructionist, idea-starved Republicans try to shut-down the government. The last time they tried that, the public practically lynched them. Moreover, Reid should not allow the Republicans to filibuster just by saying they planned to do so. I would make them appear in the Senate and force them, like their segregationist Southern forerunners, to speak round-the-clock until they are sick, sore, worn-out, and exhausted. That is how some of the filibusters of the past were broken.