The cost of filibustering? OMG. The reason the filibuster is nothing but hot air is that when a filibuster MUST be through speaking and debating Senators, it removes them from raising money full time. That is also why the Senate is always asking for a quorum call. Everyone is in their offices raising money. They aren't governing.
President Biden after leaving the Vice Presidency stated as a private citizen, he was making money he never saw before. Why? Because he was more interested in doing his job, then begging for campaign donations. It is true. President Biden never dreamed of being a billionaire, he wanted to protect the country and it's constitution. He never made vast money UNTIL HE LEFT OFFICE, not during.
March 19, 2021By Jonathan R. Siegel
...According to this theory, (click here) there are two reasons filibusters have metastasized from an occasional problem into a constant catastrophe. First, in earlier times, senators shared a social understanding that filibusters should be reserved for matters of critical importance, whereas today the Senate minority routinely filibusters everything it doesn’t like. Second, in earlier times, filibustering senators had to work hard to filibuster, whereas today they have it too easy. And while everyone agrees that not much can be done about the first point in this hyperpartisan era, some people think a lot could be done by attacking the second.
Starting in the 1970s, Senate rules created a “dual-tracking system” under which filibusters didn’t have to involve constantly debating a bill on the Senate floor. Such debate ate up too much floor time, so bills that were being filibustered were instead shunted off to a separate track. This had the advantage of allowing the Senate to work on something else while the majority tried to win enough votes to end the filibuster, but it also reduced the cost of filibustering, thereby making it more common. If filibustering senators didn’t actually have to hold the floor and debate (which in addition to being physically taxing left them less time to do other things, including raising money), then they’d be more likely to filibuster, leading to the never-ending filibuster jam the Senate is in now....
The filibuster is an unseemly rule of the US Senate. There is nothing honorable about the filibuster. Sure it is clever and even sexy, but, governing should never be about being clever, it should be about being honest.
No one is governing. Filibusters? Fund raising while in session? All these measures are slimy and define a US Senate that is easily manipulated by money. The most dramatic of recent years is Moscow Mitch and his immediate change in vote as soon as a Russian Oligarch offered to build a steel rolling plant in Kentucky to help with jobs. That is quid pro quo and McConnell got away with it.
These are priorities of wealthy Senators seeking greater wealth and will do so at any cost. The two new Georgia Senators won because President Biden asked the voters of Georgia to help with his agenda to instill profound change in this country while ending the SARS-C0V-2 pandemic in the USA. Yes, that is true. But there is also another reason.
David Purdue and Kelly Loeffler are knee deep in securities scandals.
David Purdue decides not to run for US Senate in 2022 (click here).
Purdue was a wealhty man looking to be wealthier while in the US Senate and using the information he had before him, secret or not, to attain that goal. Those governing in the federal government have used their power and office to become wealthy and wealthier. That is not REMOTELY why the American people vote and vote for people they believe to be honest and willing to bring about the laws they believe will improve their lives.
October 22, 2020By Brian Clark and Tala Hadavi
Four U.S. senators (click here) were accused in March of using insider information about the coronavirus pandemic to profit in the stock market.
A couple of months later, the investigations into Sens. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Dianna Feinstein, D-Calif., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., were closed. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., stepped down as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee amid the allegations.
Until the 2008 financial crisis, lawmakers were under few restrictions, and the public wasn’t able to find out much about lawmakers’ investments. In 2012, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act was passed to clean up Washington. But recent events have yet again thrust the issue to the forefront....
Kelly Loeffler is beleived to be worth over a half billion US. (click here) and at the time the wealthiest elected legislator in the Congress.
The filibuster, talking or otherwise, will do nothing but obstruct very important and needed reforms in the USA government. This is ridiculous. The people in the USA need their civil rights returned and some furthered to become citizens and voters themselves. It is long overdue as well as all the other highly important issues before this Congress. If the Democrats fail the people this time again, they may never see a majority again to do what needs to be done.
The Democrats have an opporunity with Joe Biden as President to carry out an aggressive agenda that will make them heroes. They cannot fail us and if affection of a Senate rule that turns the USA majority in elections into disenfrancised, then it will be a world lost and out of reach to most Americans. People will suffer without this agenda passed and safely instituted.
I think the Democrats know what they have to do, but, are too attached to the romance of the powerful Senate to get out of their own way.
...The problem is that, under the Senate’s current rules, all-night talking filibusters would just end up imposing more costs on the majority senators than the minority senators. If the Democrats want to steer around the filibuster, they’re going to have to embrace actual change to the rules. There are good reasons to think hard before abolishing the filibuster altogether, but it would at least work. Bringing back talking filibusters would not.
