Record Use of the Filibuster

[babylonsister]

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/03/01/record_use_of_the_filibuster.html

March 01, 2010

Record Use of the Filibuster


For months, Senate Democrats have made the point that Republicans are using the filibuster in an unprecedented way to block President Obama's agenda. A useful chart of Senate cloture motions through the years seems to back up this assertion.

David Waldman notes that there have been about "the same number of cloture motions between January 2009 and today as between World War I and the moon landing. It once took 50 years to get the same number of cloture votes as we've had in just over one year with this Republican minority."

John Aravosis: "What the data clearly shows it that the GOP is filibustering at twice the rate of what the Democrats did before, including what they did under Bush. So Republicans can't claim that Democrats did it too -- they didn't. Not like this."

[Oregone]

1. They haven't used the filibuster at all.

Theyve threatened it. The Democrats have used that threat as an excuse for inaction

[Cali_Democrat]

2. Well what are the spineless Dems in the Senate gonna do about it?

Nothing until they lose the majority. It seems as if they prefer minority status. Then they can show the Republicans how to use the filibuster more responsibly. That'll show 'em.