McConnell relents on filibuster

[deckeda]

His campaign to force Biden to put pressure on Senate Dems, in order to get the Senate moving on his legislative agenda, did not work.

Schumer held his ground, with Manchin and Sinema giving him cover when they once again said the filibuster should remain. (He used that as an example of Democrats agreeing with him .... )

Of course this is how it should be, if for no other reason than McConnell himself did not entertain anything except simple majority power. Could get interesting for Manchin and Sinema. They may have helped themselves here, but will still need to support a Democratic agenda to be considered Democrats.

[vision63]

deckeda wrote:
His campaign to force Biden to put pressure on Senate Dems, in order to get the Senate moving on his legislative agenda, did not work.

Schumer held his ground, with Manchin and Sinema giving him cover when they once again said the filibuster should remain. (He used that as an example of Democrats agreeing with him .... )

Of course this is how it should be, if for no other reason than McConnell himself did not entertain anything except simple majority power. Could get interesting for Manchin and Sinema. They may have helped themselves here, but will still need to support a Democratic agenda to be considered Democrats.

They've never not cooperated with the essential Democratic agenda.

[mrbigstuff]

Things may change if it's same ol', same ol'.

[Ombligo]

Manchin and Sinema are now the two most powerful Senators. They will be able to get concessions and amendments to benefit their states in exchange for their support of the agenda. The question will be just how outlandish those demands could become.

[deckeda]

Manchin will be the chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Biden won’t get anything done on climate change unless Manchin can craft it as jobs improvement. Manchin is still deeply invested, both politically and personally in coal. He’ll either be the Democrats’ best friend or a closeted Republican.

He likes to draw the analogy to tourism, as if the coal industry, merely by dint of it existing, is worthy of protection. But until he recognizes the business model is broken we’ll all have problems that stretch far beyond W. VA.

[mrbigstuff]

Dems are the "big tent" party, so it's not all that different than in prior congresses where they were the majority, except, of course, it'd be better to have some votes to spare. There have always been DINOs, and factions, and personal animosities to contend with.

[sekker]

McConnell misplayed his hand, two Dem Senators gave him an escape hatch.

[pdq]

I don’t think coal has anywhere to go but down.

Better to retrain these people than give them false hope, or worse, somehow subsidize the dirtiest form of energy in existence.

[Ted King]

Manchin and Sinema (and I think Tester probably heavily leans that way,too) have said that they are firmly against eliminating the filibuster, but I don't think they are nearly as firmly against modifying it.

I thought I saw a thread or posting here about different ways the filibuster could be "reformed" without eliminating it, but I can't find it. Here is a Vox article that discusses some modifications that Manchin might go along with:

https://www.vox.com/22238630/filibuster-...chin-ideas

I suspect that Schumer threatened McConnell with getting a majority (with Harris breaking the tie) to modify filibuster rules just to make it so that the Senate organizing rules could be passed with a majority rather than the 60 vote margin required now. McConnell was able to do his shenanigans because the present rules call for a 60 vote margin to pass new organizing rules for the Senate and because the Democrats couldn't get those votes, the Senate continued to operate under the organizing rules the Republicans passed in the prior Senate. I think Schumer was able to get all 50 Democratic senators - including Manchin - to go along with such a limited change to the filibuster if McConnell didn't cave. So he did. (I'm guessing.)

[Sam3]

So for all practical purposes the Democrats really don't have the majority needed to pass Biden's agenda, or pass the House bills that are stacked up waiting for action.

Yippee, McConnell and the Republicans still rule. :barf: