Hi. I'm Ron Elving, and thanks for coming to my
office hours.
Last time we were together, we were talking
about the filibuster.
Kind of a, you know, tough subject, and in recent
years with the rise of cable TV, and certainly
with C-SPAN, we've all gotten a lot more accustomed
to watching Congress in action.
And let's face it, the filibuster looks bad.
It's one person or two people talking and
talking and talking for an extended period
of time, maybe days, and it looks like they're
a little self-serving and it looks like they're
really holding up the whole process.
Which, in fact, is the whole point.
So, a few years ago in 2013, the Democrats,
when they were in the majority so frustrated
at the inability to get any of President Obama's
appointments confirmed, changed the rules
so that nominations could be approved with
a simple majority.
No more filibusters on nominations, but left it
in place for Supreme Court nominations,
just the Supreme Court.
That then held for a few years, until this
guy got elected president and nominated this
guy to be his Supreme Court nominee and knew
he could not get 60 votes for Neil Gorsuch.
Well, as a result, the new majority leader,
a Republican, Mitch McConnell, who had been
in that job for a couple of years, said, “We
are going to approve Neil Gorsuch come hell
or high water” and changed the rules so
that even a Supreme Court nomination would
be approvable with just a simple majority
— no more filibusters.
So even though he had won, Donald Trump was
frustrated at the idea that the rules had
had to be changed and was looking forward
to some other things coming down the road,
and he went on Twitter and said, “Either
we have to get 60 senators who are Republicans
and loyal to me or I have to get a change
in the rules so that things can be approved
with just 51 percent.”
He liked that better, thought maybe it was
time for the filibuster to die.
But don't hold your breath.
Because Mitch McConnell, who accommodated
the president with respect to the Neil Gorsuch
nomination and changed the rules on that one,
immediately said, “No, no, no, Mr. President.
On legislation, we need to have the filibuster.”
And immediately a letter was written by
the Senate with more than 60 percent of the
senators signing on that supported Mitch McConnell and said, essentially,
“no” to President Trump.
That may be the last word, one would assume.
On the other hand, President Trump has proven
to be quite adept at using pressure on the
House of Representatives and so far on the
Senate with respect to a number of other issues.
It may be difficult for the Senate to continue
to say “no” to the president regarding
the rules and the filibuster if a filibuster
holds up the health bill, the president's
tax reform, the president's wall with Mexico
or any of a number of other issues where the
Democrats have plenty of votes to prevail
if they can filibuster and if the Republicans
can't get enough Democrats to join them to
get 60 votes, invoke cloture
and end that filibuster.
This could be the deciding factor in whether
the Trump agenda gets enacted
or dies in the Senate.
I'm Ron Elving.
Thank you for coming to my office hours.
