Dems Should Embrace a Health Care Filibuster

Open, Senate debate is preferable to backroom negotiations

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 11, 2009 1:07 PM CST

(Newser) – The Senate is broken, writes Steven Pearlstein, its members so mired in dysfunction they don’t even realize how undemocratic current legislative practice is. The mere threat of a filibuster is enough to kill a bill, a fact that "violates the letter and spirit of the US Constitution." In the quest for the almighty 60 votes, health care legislation will be decided in back-room negotiations, not, as the forefathers intended, through open discourse.

Pearlstein suggests that Harry Reid opt out of this de facto minority rule—invite the filibuster, "break out the cots" and declare a real 24/7 floor fight. Don't bother coddling "weak-kneed centrists like Ben Nelson or self-righteous egotists like Joe Lieberman," he writes in the Washington Post. "If they have suggestions for improving the bill, let them do it the old-fashioned way: propose an amendment on the floor and see if they can get 49 other senators to agree."

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. pauses during a news conference to highlight the continuing commitment to support our veterans, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

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I'd like to offer a novel idea for changing the legislative dynamic, restoring majority rule to the legislative process and keeping health reform alive: Debate it on the Senate floor.
- Steven Pearlstein

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 18 comments

cornelison

Nov 12, 2009 12:10 PM CST

A filibuster for some politicians to make statements that will please their benefactors (health insurance companies). It's a paid commercial endorsement for corporate America.

cornelison

Nov 12, 2009 4:40 AM CST

Hi cat. Do you think that voters are that ignorant? Some of them know what a health insurance bill looks like. And they really know what a reject letter from a health insurance company means.

Cat-Lover

Nov 12, 2009 2:12 AM CST

Once a filibuster begins, nobody listens (except when Jimmy Stewart filibustered in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"). So while no one's listening, the public will turn against a congress that "can't get anything done," and will force the passing of health care with the public option.

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Politics • Health

health care • Congress • Senate • filibuster • health care reform • public option

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Dems Should Embrace a Health Care Filibuster