Thanks to a Republican vote to stop California from setting its own auto emissions, Democrats can challenge virtually any Trump administration action, and eat up time on the Senate floor.
A Gun.
Can, certainly. Should, definitely. Will, unlikely.
Sure, they should try, but it’s silly to think that this would actually work. The Senate parliamentarian will rule that it doesn’t meet the requirements (and would be correct) and the republican majority won’t vote to override. Attempt quashed and it wouldn’t even be a news story just being a procedural thing.
I know, it’s unfair and that “they set a precedent” and all of that, but if your strategy requires that republicans not be abject opportunistic hypocrites, then it’s almost certain to fail.
Parliamentarians rule on all precedent including recent ones. Analogously, the threshold for filibustering cabinet nominees was only lowered to 51 in the early 2010s by simply overruling the decision of the chair. And you don’t even need a separate overrule motion to overrule the parliamentarian. You just have to not respond. 10 hours of required debate is 10 hours of required debate.
Fair point since rhe overrule would now be precedent. So, a republican objects since this is inappropriate, the parliamentarian deems that the precedent allows the Democratic motion, republicans overrule the parliamentarian, and the strategy is quashed.
Extra steps, sure, but since republicans don’t care about norms or hypocrisy, they wouldn’t even blink at such a move.
The only way that it works is if enough republicans don’t really want to pass the bill. Then, this might give them an out. It wouldn’t work otherwise.
That said, no reason not to make them do the extra work.
And once again, they will snatch Defeat from the jaws of Victory.
Their puppeteers love the current situation, and will make sure to keep the strings short and steady. Can’t have that last democrat with some semblence of morals or sense of duty get in the way of making big money. If those aren’t but a fairy tale by now.
It’s refreshing in a way that we no longer have to spend much time thinking about the Senate parliamentarian, the shadowy figure whose rulings supposedly decide what the chamber can and cannot do. Republicans put that to bed last week by overruling the parliamentarian over whether a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution could nullify the Environmental Protection Agency’s waiver allowing California to set its own air pollution standards on vehicles.
Oh, you mean the thing we were pissed off that the Dems didn’t do? Repubs did it, no problem? Oh, wow.
For this reason, Democrats could subject the Senate to time-consuming resolution votes repeatedly, to such a degree that the Senate would not have time to do anything else for the rest of this session of Congress. In other words, Democrats could respond to the waiver vote by paralyzing the Senate, and stopping the giant Trump tax bill from ever reaching the floor.
Georgia State University assistant professor and former House Oversight Committee staffer Todd Phillips laid this out in a Prospect piece earlier this month. Any 30 senators can force a CRA resolution onto the floor, with a required ten hours of debate time. These resolutions would need the president’s signature, and nearly all of them wouldn’t even get the Republican votes necessary to pass the Senate. But according to Senate procedure, they have to be dealt with if enough senators force them onto the floor. They must be debated and voted upon ahead of other Senate business if brought up for consideration. This means that Democrats can tie up the Senate floor for upwards of ten hours with any single CRA resolution.
Let me save you the suspense. They won’t do it. Repubs are willing to break the system to get what they want. Dems want decorum. This is why we’re completely fucked.
You are right, they won’t do it. Dems not an actual opposition party. Half of them want the same exact thing as the magas, and the other half want to let the magas break everything just to prove a point.
Dems don’t have to lie, cheat, and steal like the Republicans to win, they just have to play Hard Ball, and force the MAGA Nazis to follow the laws, established rules, and the Constitution, without exception.
Malicious Compliance is a perfectly acceptable and ethical form of resistance, and Dems should be using it at every single opportunity.
If your opponent is cheating and you can’t stop them, then they’re not cheating and those are just the rules. If you don’t use those rules, you will lose.
Yet they won’t. This is why I have no faith in them.
they just have to play Hard Ball, and force the MAGA Nazis to follow the laws, established rules, and the Constitution, without exception.
Oh, we’re fucked then.
Removed by mod
Nah, they’re gonna break out ol’ reliable…
A strongly worded letter!
