Sen. Tina Smith calls for eliminating filibuster

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: The Hill

Sen. Tina Smith (Minn.) on Friday became the latest Democratic senator to call for eliminating the Senate filibuster.

"I've made up my mind. We need to move this country forward, and that's why I've decided to come out in support of eliminating the filibuster," Smith said on Twitter.

Link to tweet

Smith in a Facebook post on Thursday said she initially supported keeping the filibuster, but had determined it was an "enemy of progress."

"Without it, I reasoned, what would stop a conservative president and Congress from doing terrible damage to women's health care, voting rights and civil rights," Smith wrote of her initial position.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/sen-tina-smith-calls-for-eliminating-filibuster/ar-BB1ehPsL?li=BB141NW3&ocid=DELLDHP

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Do we have the votes?

[Mister Ed]

1. Very proud that both the women who represent my state in the Senate...

...are taking this stand.

[ancianita]

2. In American women's interests, Republican women should come out in support of eliminating

the filibuster, too.

[OnDoutside]

3. The more who come out in favour, the bigger the energy that's

created, and creates a life of its own. If you get to a stage where 40-45 are in favour of removing the filibuster, that will put huge pressure on the remaining Senators, to at least agree to narrow the rule as the GOP did with the SC.

Do this sooner rather than later, as a crisis point is coming with the HR1/VRA/S1, which simply MUST BE PASSED.

[Mike 03]

5. Yes, thank you!

That is what I was trying to say, but with less eloquence than you did.

[OnDoutside]

16. Thanks

[Mike 03]

4. She changed her mind, introducing the possibility that others may

change their minds too (and people like Senator Smith doing this can provide cover to others who are more stuck in their positions).

[Polybius]

15. Except if they say 'Jesus Christ, what don't you understand about 'never'?'

He's not changing his mind.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142705071

[Fullduplexxx]

6. Joe says "hell no you cant" in his best john boner voice

[forgotmylogin]

7. They need to eliminate the *easy* filibuster.

If a senator wants to hold the floor and talk to delay a bill, that's fine by me. It shouldn't just be an easy pushbutton "yeah we want to filibuster, move the goalposts plz" for everything.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

9. Ted Cruz can read "Green Eggs and Ham" again.

[Wolf Frankula]

39. I agree entirely

Make the senator stand or sit there and talk. And if they leave to go to the bathroom or get something to eat, then."The senator is finished. Let this body move forward."

Wolf

[forgotmylogin]

40. Perhaps the way to get it through is to say "restore filibuster", not eliminate?

The whole reason the filibuster worked was someone would hold the floor which took 2/3rds to override. Eliminating the "stamina trial" element of the filibuster makes it meaningless and a cheap rule-change for vote threshold.

A person can't just signal they "will filibuster", they need to go through with it.

[roamer65]

8. We may not to be able to eliminate it, but I think we can gut it.

[turbinetree]

12. Agreed .......................

O'Donnell and Orenstein were discussing this last night on his show..........check what was said at around the 15:45 second mark

[OnDoutside]

17. Norm did a great one about this bon Al Frankens podcast in January.

[turbinetree]

18. They mentioned this in the reporting..........

[OnDoutside]

20. Ah good, it was a really informative episode. Must have a look at

Lawrence's show later

[burrowowl]

32. It was excellent!

If they want to filibuster they have to beat Strom Thurmond's 24 hour 13 minute record or even Robert Byrd's 13 hours 14 minutes. I don't remember how long J. Stewart's was in Mr. Smith goes to Washington. And if they want a bill read they have to stay and listen to it!

[Trust_Reality]

36. They and their staff need to read it rather than abusing the clerks.

[Deminpenn]

21. Keep it, but place the burden on the minority

opposition to provide the votes (at least 41) to CONTINUE it.

[turbinetree]

22. Agreed .......................

if you don't have the 41 then you have vote, pretty simple instead of how its been gerrymandered into it's present form ....

you either have the 41 or you are present to vote, Van Hollen used it last night and did it to Johnson, but he used the rule to knock off 20 more hours of there right wing trolling..........especially from from a "guy" (RJ) that should be expelled...........

[Lonestarblue]

23. Here's a paragraph from a New Republic article explaining Ornstein's idea.

“Norm Ornstein has proposed simply placing the onus on the minority to make a filibuster rather than on the majority to break one. “Instead of 60 votes required to end debate,” he suggested last year, “the procedure should require 40 votes to continue it. If at any time the minority cannot muster 40 votes, debate ends, cloture is invoked, and the bill can be passed by the votes of a simple majority.”

The problem with this theory is that it takes 60 votes to change the Senate rules, and there is no way Republicans will vote for this rule change. The nuclear option of getting rid of the filibuster is really the only way to stop Republicans from controlling the Biden legislation. They have already shown that any bipartisanship on their part is a myth.

Our best hope may be to elect to additional Democratic Senators in 2022 so that Manchin and Sinema cannot prevent progress. That’s a lot of things that remain undone, which also risks losing the House and possibly the Senate. Manchin, especially, seems quite touchy on the subject, and it would be a disaster if he just resigned or decided to go to the Republican side.

[turbinetree]

28. Thank you................

[joshcryer]

27. It continues to blow my mind how lazy Senators are.

This absolutely should be the standard. They should be doing their damn job. I have said this without reservation that everyone is using these arcane bullcrap rules to stop from doing their job, on both sides. People should be screaming from the rooftops how utterly incompetent the Senate is. The cloakroom doesn't do crap.

[jorgevlorgan]

10. We can't eliminate it, but there might be some success at watering it down.

Let's see how it goes, but more like her coming on board is encouraging.

[turbinetree]

13. O'Donnell and Orenstein from last nights reporting

[William Seger]

34. That was a great segment -- I hope the idea propagates

[turbinetree]

35. Yiu would think so if not this year but next "if' we get more dems in the senate

[Magoo48]

11. Yes! Eliminate it entirely.

[Polybius]

14. Do we have the votes?

In the immortal words of Joe Manchin, 'Jesus Christ, what don't you understand about 'never'?'

[OnDoutside]

19. But did he mean in its entirety or he might consider slight changes.

[Dopers_Greed]

24. This will only hand more power to the next Trump

What if the next wannabe-dictator held the presidency with a 50/50 Senate.

Would you really want no filibuster then?

[cstanleytech]

26. It was pretty useless already when it came to stacking SCOTUS as well as the other federal judge

slots that the GOP shoehorned their people into so what good do you think it really does to keep it now other than to help the Republicans when they have under 50 Senate seats?

[Trust_Reality]

37. And it is the R party that feels the need to block progress. They are the ones who benefit most

from the filibuster.

[Elessar Zappa]

41. The Republicans will probably do

away with the filibuster next time they have power. We might as well do it first and get some stuff done.

[cstanleytech]

25. Considering how worthless it was in stopping the Republicans from stacking SCOTUS it might

well be time to put the whole filibuster thing to rest.

[riversedge]

29. At first I was not sure but the more I see this covid bill watered down, the more I agree.

[riversedge]

30. now for otheres to follow. I am going to call my senator Baldwin

[Bettie]

31. Good to see more speaking out about this

though there is little hope of it happening. There are at least a couple of them who adore it and would only vote to get rid of it if the other side asked them to.

[JohnSJ]

33. Excellent. The unfortunate fact is at this point in time even if we were able to eliminate the

filibuster, Manchin and Senema would still prevent a majority vote on critical issues

[Trust_Reality]

38. If legislators, whether D or R, continually vote against the wishes of a high percentage

of their constituents, their constituents should sue them or recall them.

[dalton99a]

42. Kick