Make the repubs filibuster.

[Melissa G]

I am so tired of the threat of filibuster stopping all forward progress. If they want to filibuster, make them do it. Don't just take their letter of 43 signatures. Make them work for it and show them to be the obstructionist fools they are.

from my WaPo news alerts

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News Alert: Reid plan in jeopardy
July 30, 2011 1:37:31 PM
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) delivered a letter Saturday afternoon to Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), signed by 43 Republicans, declaring that Reid's debt-limit legislation was unacceptable. Needing 60 votes to clear a filibuster hurdle, Reid's current draft is assured of failure in a 1 a.m. vote Sunday. McConnell demanded that President Obama re-engage in negotiations. "It isn't going to pass, let's get talking to the administration," McConnell said Saturday in a floor speech.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-gop-tries-to-rescue-debt-limit-plan-obama-to-make-statement/2011/07/29/gIQAH527gI_story.html?hpid=z1&wpisrc=al_national

[DCBob]

1. I wonder if the Dems are considering the "nuclear option"?

This would be good a time as any to use it.

[Melissa G]

3. I'm not clear. Is this something they can use at any time?

I suspect there are better tricks to play. http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/i/filibuster.htm

Being from Texas, I'm not thrilled about the tactics of the tyranny of the majority. Our Lege is a mess.

[DCBob]

4. yes, I believe so.. its been discussed and debated but never been used.

up to now.

[Melissa G]

6. Nixon found it. That in itself ought to tell us something.

from wiki:
Although it is not provided for in the formal rules of the Senate, the nuclear option is the subject of a 1957 parliamentary opinion by Vice President Richard Nixon and was endorsed by the Senate in a series of votes in 1975, some of which were reconsidered shortly thereafter.<1> Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.) first called the option "nuclear" in March 2003.<2><3> Proponents since have referred to it as the constitutional option.<4><5><6>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_option

[jwirr]

10. It is my guess that they are going to run this out until the last minute

and then introduce the one page option first. If it is turned down then he will have little choice but to use the 14th amendment.

[Melissa G]

13. I hope that is the case rather than cutting social programs. n/t

[AtomicKitten]

2. They should have been made to filibuster every piece of legislation they blocked.

An actual filibuster on CSPAN and not shutting down business with a simple declaration of intent to filibuster. If invoking the 14th Amendment is the so-called nuclear option, I hope the president nukes their asses as the cure for their epic obstructionism.

k&r

[Melissa G]

5. I agree that they should have to work for every piece of legislation they block.

They are likely lazy and the threat of work might fix them. :evilgrin: I would prefer to have them negotiating with Reid rather than Obama. I think our social programs are safer that way.

[AtomicKitten]

7. I think the GOP confuses Kabuki theater with legislating.

I'm still hoping for a clean 1-sentence bill raising the debt ceiling which has been raised 74 times since March 1962.

[Melissa G]

9. I think a clean bill is the right idea.

Unfortunately, The White House and Dems other than Conyers and the Black caucus are not in line with your excellent plan. Dems should untie everything else, especially social programs, and push the one page solution.

Congress made the mess by excess spending; Congress can clean it up in one page. Clear and easy message.

[woolldog]

12. That's precisely why they want to drag Obama back into the process. nt

[bowens43]

8. I would rather just see ti fail......

Hopefully there are enough Dems with the integrity needed to help ensure that this piece of shit legislation dies. If not, I'm all for the filibuster.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. I noticed Fox News doesn't mention the word

I tuned in for a few minutes yesterday when they were discussing the chances of the Reid bill getting passed in the Senate. They said the bill would not get past the "normal" 60 vote requirement. Not one Fox talking head would use the dreaded word "filibuster". The filibuster never was normal until the Republicans lost the Senate just a few years ago.