Party sticks to its guns on healthcare and says it’s willing to hold out – much to the delight of its progressive supporters
When he sat down to talk about the US government shutdown with reporters from a closely read political newsletter this week, Chuck Schumer sounded as if he was relishing his standoff with the Republicans.
“Every day gets better for us,” he told Punchbowl News. As the shutdown got under way, Schumer explained, the Republican part believed that Democrats would quickly fold and vote to reopen the government, but instead they had stuck to their guns for a week and a half, demanding an array of concessions on healthcare and other issues.
Outrage followed from Republicans, who printed out the Senate minority leader’s remark on posters and condemned it before press conferences. The shutdown has prompted federal agencies to close or curtail operations nationwide, and forced hundreds of thousands of employees to stay home without immediate pay. Schumer, Republicans argued, was being callous.
The GOP has 53 senators. Under current Senate procedural rules, they need 60 votes to pass a budget.
Having said that, they only need 50 votes to change Senate procedural rules. However, for reasons I do not comprehend, Senators from both bodies have been surprisingly resistant to the idea of removing or adding exemptions to the 60 vote requirement.
Because the requirement for a supermajority means nothing gets done. The Senate is there to ensure that intertia rules.
They could also use Reconciliation, I think. That would just require 50.
They can can only do that once per type of budget bill, per year. And since they can’t stand not getting what they want, they obviously had to use it the first chance they got.
Another Senate rule that could be changed by a simple majority.
The reason the government is shut down is because the Republicans want it that way. All their squawking is just blame-shifting.
Because simple majority would swing back the other way in no time and there would be little the current majority party could do. Every two years it’s likely to change these days
Good. There can be no bipartisan consensus with fascists.