Fix the Senate, save America By Norm Ornstein
October 10, 2021
It is a measure of the shattered state of the American political system that a deal proposed by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell simply to postpone by two months a dangerous confrontation over the debt ceiling — one that could result in a default and a catastrophic economic collapse — is getting widespread kudos. The need for the postponement, of course, came, just days before the debt ceiling was reached, because Senate Republicans would not allow the 50 Senate Democrats to raise the debt ceiling on their own, but mounted a filibuster with all 50 of their own refusing to budge, making it impossible to get the 60 votes needed to act. To act, it should be noted, to enable the country to pay for the $8 trillion of national debt racked during the Trump presidency!
Of course, McConnell did not propose the two-month extension out of the goodness of his heart, a concern for the institution of the Senate, or his concern for the country and the economy. He had demanded that Democrats raise the debt ceiling through the vehicle of budget reconciliation, making it more difficult or impossible for them to use reconciliation for their broader, ambitious agenda on human infrastructure. He feared that, pushed to the edge by the obstruction, and unable in any case to use reconciliation in time, Democrats in the Senate at the 11th hour would have carved out an exception for the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold — opening the door to further exceptions, and then to broader filibuster reform.
The debt ceiling fiasco is Exhibit A in the larger problem: One of our two political parties is no longer a traditional, conservative problem-solving party but has morphed into an obstructionist cult aiming to do whatever it takes to block governance in order to inflame voters and regain power, no matter the cost to the country. Flirting with disaster on the debt ceiling for naked political gain is one example. But consider others.
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-fix-the-senate-save-america-20211010-cmtmg5trdbf4bn7nliaxckpufi-story.html
( Good advice )
