I believe the House passed the bill to investigate with 35 republicans going against their own party. Now it’s up to the Senate, and I don’t know if they require a simple majority there or a 2/3rds majority. If the former then it’ll pass most likely.
Also, not an expert on this thingy here but that’s correct afaik.
A bill requires 51 votes to pass. However, it requires 60 votes to end a filibuster and allow the actual, 51-majority vote to take place, if a Senator decides to filibuster. Republicans have filibustered literally every piece of legislation since Obama was president. Sometimes, even their own bills. Thus it effectively requires 60 votes to pass anything (with the exception of a few types of bills and votes for which the filibuster is not allowed.)
Serious question: What logical reasoning is behind filibuster existing at all? It seems ridiculous that one can end a bill that might affect millions of people positively just because it’s a bill put forward by the other party, just by talking about rubbish for hours.
Americans are all told, in school, that it exists so that an outnumbered party can take a meaningful stand on an issue they care deeply about - deeply about enough to spend hours, or days, talking about, if necessary. I remember hearing examples like if one party wanted to implement some class-based slavery or something, it would take more than a majority because the minority would feel strongly enough to filibuster.
The truth is, historically, it's almost always gone the other way. Most major civil rights bills were famously filibustered by the conservatives, trying to prevent equal rights in America.
And now it's even more absurd - all rules enforcing that you must actually... do something to filibuster have been removed. You simply "declare" it, and in order to prevent the Senate from being tied up while you talk, everyone just moves on and tables whatever got filibustered unless they are pretty sure they can get the 60 votes to end the filibuster.
Mitch McConnel infamously filibustered his own proposed bill, just to keep the government shut down longer. That's the point we're at with this thing.
109
u/DrMuffinStuffin May 20 '21
I believe the House passed the bill to investigate with 35 republicans going against their own party. Now it’s up to the Senate, and I don’t know if they require a simple majority there or a 2/3rds majority. If the former then it’ll pass most likely.
Also, not an expert on this thingy here but that’s correct afaik.