Bring on the "Nuclear Option." The so-called Nuclear Option is the process that a Senator will rise on the floor of the U.S. Senate and call into question the unconstitutionality of the Filibuster, and immediately call for a vote to annihilate this arcane rule that is making our Federal Government completely dysfunctional.
The nuclear option, being brought up as a "point of order," would not require a 60-vote margin to pass. It would simply take a majority vote to pass and get rid of this unconstitutional road block. All we need is 51 votes to do this!
It's just a "rule" that 100 people made up. At the time they created it, it was rarely used. Over the years, Senators have changed it before--it used to take 67 votes to overcome a filibuster, now it takes 60. Why not 51?
The Senators can, and must, change it again--because, it is being abused and it has paralyzed our Federal Government. It is time for the Senate to be governed by majority rule. It is time to get things done, and the Filibuster is standing in the way of Everything.
I come to this conclusion because the Filibuster is being abused. It is now used on nearly EVERY piece of legislation that moves into the Senate.
In the 1950's, during each 2-year term of Congress, the Filibuster was only used an average of ONE TIME EVERY 2 YEARS. In the current term of Congress which began on January 1, 2009, the Filibuster has already been invoked MORE THAN 239 TIMES.
Enough!
The filibuster exists only to give power to those 100 people. It does nothing for the rest of us. This rule does not exist in our Constitution.
But wait, it gets worse!
What's even worse that the Filibuster is the Single Senator Hold that is routinely used by ONE Senator to completely hold up appointments of Judges and other Executive Branch appointees who must be confirmed by the Senate.
There is never even a confirmation vote if the One Senator Hold is invoked.
And, as we have seen recently, it is invoked many times solely as a form of political bribery--like Sen. Shelby in Alabama having a hold on 70 appointees simply because he wanted funding to be approved for pork projects in his state.
Questioning the qualifications of appointees is something that can and should be decided in the confirmation process--it should not be decided by ONE Senator.
And if you think that the One Senator Hold is bad policy now, just wait until we have the Senator From Exxon or the Senator From Aetna (oh, wait a minute, we already do--"Dick" Liberman).
Time is running out on our democracy. We are out of timeouts, there are 3 seconds left on the clock, and we need to put up a 3-pointer to win the game.
We need to light up the airwaves and social networks about this problem. We need to educate our friends about what's going on and why "nothing ever gets done."
We need to pressure Democrats and Bernie Sanders in the Senate to stand up and push the proverbial red button. Give them the launch codes for the Nukes. Make all 100 Senators weigh in on this. Televise it on all the networks and give it the same publicity as we did for Friday's Press Conference for Tiger Woods.
If we can televise Tiger Woods' press conference on all networks to find out who else he's screwing, then why can't we televise this Nuclear Option vote and let the 100 Senators show us who they are screwing?
Then count the votes and start grilling the naysayers as to why they oppose Majority Rule.
And, if it doesn't pass the first time, bring up the Point of Order for another vote again--until we get Majority Rule in the U.S. Senate.
After all, until that happens, nothing else will get done in Washington, anyway.
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