End the Fake Filibuster

Tuesday, Senate Democrats lost the battle to stop President Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education. But on bigger battles ahead, the Democrats have a powerful weapon – and they intend to use it.

Republicans control both houses of Congress and the White House. Yet Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer boasts that he can block Trump’s legislative agenda, including repealing the Affordable Care Act.

“Obamacare, he won’t be able to do it,” Schumer says. “Forget about repealing or modifying Dodd-Frank.”

What allows Schumer to thwart the majority’s will and paralyze the Senate? Not the U.S. Constitution, as the framers designed it.

The answer is a centuries-old Senate practice called the filibuster. Senators in the minority could take the floor and talk endlessly, never agreeing to formally end debate so the majority could vote. They’d talk the legislation to death or “filibuster” it, in the process shutting down all other Senate business. The House never permitted it, always allowing a simple majority to shut down debate. Read more here: https://spectator.org/end-the-fake-filibuster/