Sunday’s newspaper included its standard weekly recap of major happenings in Congress, listing bills considered, outcomes of the vote, and how each of our local representatives cast their vote. Our House of Representatives had considered two major bills. I noted with interest that the votes were not strictly along party lines, including our own Congressional District’s Republican representative voting with the Democrats.
The more telling recap happened in the Senate. They too were trying to consider two bills. The result was the same each time. The Democrats had failed to garner enough votes to override a threatened filibuster by the Republicans. The end result was that nothing happened in the Senate. No bills were passed. No bills were even voted on. The votes taken on the proposed filibusters went strictly along party lines.
Now my first exposure to the filibuster came from Frank Capra’s famous film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Young Jimmy Stewart uses the filibuster rule in an attempt to save the site for his planned boy’s camp, instead of letting it get flooded by an unneeded pork barrel dam project. It was already an old film when I first saw it on TV, but despite Capra’s typical schmaltzy techniques, it still ranks as a classic. I thought the filibuster was a great idea. One man could, if he had sufficient stamina, talk long enough to prevent a vote in the Senate. It seemed like a path to victory for the little guy.
But that’s not how the filibuster works these days. Now, forty-one Senators can agree that they will threaten to use a filibuster, and unless you can get sixty Senators to agree to bring the matter to a vote, no vote will be taken. The U.S. Senate is derisively known as “the place that bills go to die.”
In his recent book, The Clinton Tapes, author Taylor Branch describes newly elected President Bill Clinton’s meeting with the Senate’s leading Republican, Bob Dole. Clinton reached out to Dole and expressed his hope that they could work together for the benefit of the American people by passing needed legislation. Dole was frank with the former Arkansas State Governor, explaining that as head of the opposition party, his job was to see to it that Clinton would accomplish nothing. It would make him look bad in the eyes of the electorate, and help to return the Republicans to power. Must have been a brutal eye-opener to the young President.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has come out in favor of changing the filibuster rule to require a simple majority (50 Senators) in order to get legislation to a vote. It’s a small change, but could have big results. According to Reid the biggest problem facing the Senate is that "We can't get legislation on the floor. We've tried very hard all different ways to move legislation in this body but for the first time in the history of the country, the number one issue in the Senate of the United States has been a procedural thing, how do we get on a bill, a motion to proceed to something. That has taken over the Senate and it needs to go away. We shouldn't have to do that anymore."
Currently, our airwaves are crowded with ads for the two men vying for the office of U.S. President. Criticism of our current President focuses on his inability to create more jobs. To be fair, the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009, known more simply as the “Stimulus Package” did save and create jobs. One year after the stimulus, several independent macroeconomic firms, including Moody’s and HIS Global Insight, estimated that the stimulus saved or created 1.6 to 1.8 million jobs and forecast a total impact of 2.5 million jobs saved by the time the stimulus is completed. The Congressional Budget Office considered these estimates of jobs saved and created too conservative.
Some economists said that the stimulus was too small. In his excellent book The New Deal: a modern history, author Michael Hiltzik points out that despite all of the agencies and programs created by FDR, the only time that the economy really improved during the Great Depression was when Congress approved bonuses for WWI veterans, releasing millions of dollars into the economy. The problem wasn’t too much federal spending; the problem was that the pump wasn’t primed enough. Of course it required the massive military spending that funded WWII in order to finally bring us out of the Great Depression. I recommend reading this book for the historical perspective it provides in dealing with a major economic crisis.
In order to create more jobs, the President proposed a jobs bill. It has been blocked in the Senate by the Republican minority. Now the same party is screaming at the top of their lungs that the President isn’t doing enough to create jobs. Guess what? Our three branch democratic republic requires action by the legislature, not just the President. He can’t do it alone because he’s not an omnipotent dictator. What’s more, if Mitt Romney replaces him next year, he won’t be able to change things all by himself either.
Little things mean a lot. It’s a commonly used expression, and is often true. Right now, the one little thing that needs to be changed is the filibuster rule in the U.S. Senate. Write your Senators and let them know how you feel. After all, someone should try to do something to help.
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