Legal Commentary

Bipartisan Fantasies And Filibuster Excuses

By Big Tent Democrat

Kevin Drum writes:

Chris Beam says a bipartisan effort to reduce the deficit is probably doomed. So the only answer is a partisan effort to reduce the deficit[. . . .] Have we forgotten about the filibuster already? This idea would be lovely if either party manages to win 60 seats in the Senate — or close to it — but that seems pretty unlikely in the near term for either side. This strikes me as little better than a fantasy.

(Emphasis supplied.) More . . .

Kevin forgets that the most important government policies that have impacted the deficit are, for better or worse, tax policies. And these were passed through reconciliation. In 1993, Bill Clinton got the 1993 Omnibus Reconciliation Act passed with a 218-216 vote in the House and a tiebreaking vote by Al Gore in the Senate. In 2001 and 2003, George Bush got his budget busting tax cuts through reconciliation, not by defeating a filibuster.

The Beltway dreams of bipartisan solutions and Beltway Bloggers excuse Democratic failure by insisting that the filibuster is preventing solutions. These are both false myths. The only time things get done (for better or worse) is when political parties enact the policies they believe in. I defy anyone to identify a meaningful policy enacted in a bipartisan fashion (other than giveaways to Wall Street and the privileged of course.) And most of these come by way of the reconciliation process in recent times.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on November 18, 2010 (boomark / email).