“verb [intrans.] [often as noun] (filibustering) act in an obstructive manner in legislature, esp. by speaking at inordinate lengths: Several measures were killed by republican filibustering”
Only Republicans filibuster or what??
I don’t know but I ll try to at least leave some image of how this measure is used by Republicans in United States to ensure the fall of iconic Mr. Obama in the next elections.
Bipartisan support for bills was never the norm in the senate and almost all the bills claiming the support of both Republicans as well as Democrats were either so because none of the sects wanted to be seen as a ‘No’ party or going away from the original draft the other group accommodated the changes to please both sides.
What has changed now?
Well nothing. Let us look into the backdrop of how Senate used to resolve such situations and that meant blocking of bill of any importance by even a single senator. Till as recently as 1920s American senate had no rule to end a filibuster and take a vote. It was only when President Wilson wanted to American involvement into the first world war and to do that he had to end a filibuster and conduct an actual voting that Senate adopted a rule (Rule XXII). In present form this rule asks for a supermajority (60 out of 100) senators to give their assents to end the filibuster.
So what? Didn’t Obama swept through the polls?
Well, yes he did but for the one seat which could have given him supermajority ( Democrats have 59 out of 100 seats).
But wasn’t the stimulus package (TARP) passed successfully?
Ummmmmm…..well Mr. Obama had a stroke of good luck with the defection of Mr. Arlen Spector he passed all that he could with filibuster proof supermajority he had (59+1 = 60/100 yeeaaaaaahhhhhhh….)
Isn’t that true still?
No, not anymore. With the sad demise of last of the Kennedy and the Democrat stronghold of Massachusetts going into the Republican kitty the supermajority stood no more (60-1 =59). What’s more, a senator (Democrat) from Indiana Mr. Evan Bayh got so frustrated with the lack of effectiveness of the current senate that he announced his retirement (Some people doubt whether he would have lost the next election anyway).
Lame Duck? So soon?
Not exactly, Mr Obama has his executive powers safely rested with him. Which he can ( and he had a few times) used to bring Republicans to the voting table. How on earth would you think his predecessor Mr. Bush made all those intelligent decisions.
Duh!
So is he safe?
No he s not. He has failed to pass the jobs bill or the health reform bill and he s being watched on both of these. Apart from the political front (yeah the Iraq and Afghanistan story all over again) and the TARP bill (What’s that? Yeah people forget easily) there s nothing much he can claim he has done. Though if the contents of the TARP would have been passed as a separate bill then this Government could have claimed to be one of the most productive one (Auto, Banking, Stock Markets, Jobs, Infrastructure everything in one bill. Phew it really was something.)
Healthcare, what has he done on that?
No one knows what he has done. Though the bill was passed successfully in the House in its own version and the Senate passed its own version (yeah yeah I know then he had that supermajority but guys he tried right?). Where he fell short was keeping his promises he made on the grand stands before the elections. He assured both the Private health insurers and the pharmaceutical companies before drafting the bill (and we listened to all that big talk about cutting the lobbyists to size). It was only the common people who never were kept in the loop of drafting the bill. No major attempts were made by Democrats to bring Republicans to a common discussion table or call for a debate on the reforms. And thus the main resilience to the reforms came from common people who never understood what is being talked about in the bill. This not only gave the Republicans a leeway to filibuster their way out of the reform bill but they have also leveraged public’s anger against the bill by not voting either for or against the bill. Though theoretically the only step remaining is to bring a combined version of the bill to both the houses and call for a vote but practically Mr. Obama might have messed the most important reform he could have brought to the ageing population in USA.
Jobs, What on that?
Well, the same fate as with the healthcare bill the jobs bill never saw the light of the day. With grim forecasts about the jobs in 2010-11 everyone expects the unemployment rate to be just below a double figure mark at about 9%. Many cynics (including the author of this blog) believe the rate can rise as the interest rates strengthen in near future and the effects of Government stimuli starts to show strains on the overall economic growth. This can but naturally derail the talks of fast recovery and employment generation by increased consumptions. But Mr. Obama is too smart to know all this and more and he also must be knowing that all this can ultimately lead to Republicans sweeping with bigger numbers in the coming November polls.
What else?
Well almost everything written down here is a layman’s view on political situation in America. Many may start thinking about the advantages of a uni party system (also known as Communism in many circles) as practiced in China. No sir, I don’t agree with that. The democratic error in growth rates will reap great benefits to all the democratic countries (according to Dr. Amartya Sen). And other factors like social unrest and lack of criticism of policies in longer run will prove to be larger burden on the whole political framework than the issues like filibustering (I just love this word!!!) or lack of political consensus. Though let me be politically correct and state that communism has its own advantage. Shifting from a style of politics and reaping its advantage may take a country several decades so as of now I think Democracies are better off being democratic rather than envy the growth of some red dragon in the far east.
Bipartisan support for bills was never the norm in the senate and almost all the bills claiming the support of both Republicans as well as Democrats were either so because none of the sects wanted to be seen as a ‘No’ party or going away from the original draft the other group accommodated the changes to please both sides.
What has changed now?
Well nothing. Let us look into the backdrop of how Senate used to resolve such situations and that meant blocking of bill of any importance by even a single senator. Till as recently as 1920s American senate had no rule to end a filibuster and take a vote. It was only when President Wilson wanted to American involvement into the first world war and to do that he had to end a filibuster and conduct an actual voting that Senate adopted a rule (Rule XXII). In present form this rule asks for a supermajority (60 out of 100) senators to give their assents to end the filibuster.
So what? Didn’t Obama swept through the polls?
Well, yes he did but for the one seat which could have given him supermajority ( Democrats have 59 out of 100 seats).
But wasn’t the stimulus package (TARP) passed successfully?
Ummmmmm…..well Mr. Obama had a stroke of good luck with the defection of Mr. Arlen Spector he passed all that he could with filibuster proof supermajority he had (59+1 = 60/100 yeeaaaaaahhhhhhh….)
Isn’t that true still?
No, not anymore. With the sad demise of last of the Kennedy and the Democrat stronghold of Massachusetts going into the Republican kitty the supermajority stood no more (60-1 =59). What’s more, a senator (Democrat) from Indiana Mr. Evan Bayh got so frustrated with the lack of effectiveness of the current senate that he announced his retirement (Some people doubt whether he would have lost the next election anyway).
Lame Duck? So soon?
Not exactly, Mr Obama has his executive powers safely rested with him. Which he can ( and he had a few times) used to bring Republicans to the voting table. How on earth would you think his predecessor Mr. Bush made all those intelligent decisions.
Duh!
So is he safe?
No he s not. He has failed to pass the jobs bill or the health reform bill and he s being watched on both of these. Apart from the political front (yeah the Iraq and Afghanistan story all over again) and the TARP bill (What’s that? Yeah people forget easily) there s nothing much he can claim he has done. Though if the contents of the TARP would have been passed as a separate bill then this Government could have claimed to be one of the most productive one (Auto, Banking, Stock Markets, Jobs, Infrastructure everything in one bill. Phew it really was something.)
Healthcare, what has he done on that?
No one knows what he has done. Though the bill was passed successfully in the House in its own version and the Senate passed its own version (yeah yeah I know then he had that supermajority but guys he tried right?). Where he fell short was keeping his promises he made on the grand stands before the elections. He assured both the Private health insurers and the pharmaceutical companies before drafting the bill (and we listened to all that big talk about cutting the lobbyists to size). It was only the common people who never were kept in the loop of drafting the bill. No major attempts were made by Democrats to bring Republicans to a common discussion table or call for a debate on the reforms. And thus the main resilience to the reforms came from common people who never understood what is being talked about in the bill. This not only gave the Republicans a leeway to filibuster their way out of the reform bill but they have also leveraged public’s anger against the bill by not voting either for or against the bill. Though theoretically the only step remaining is to bring a combined version of the bill to both the houses and call for a vote but practically Mr. Obama might have messed the most important reform he could have brought to the ageing population in USA.
Jobs, What on that?
Well, the same fate as with the healthcare bill the jobs bill never saw the light of the day. With grim forecasts about the jobs in 2010-11 everyone expects the unemployment rate to be just below a double figure mark at about 9%. Many cynics (including the author of this blog) believe the rate can rise as the interest rates strengthen in near future and the effects of Government stimuli starts to show strains on the overall economic growth. This can but naturally derail the talks of fast recovery and employment generation by increased consumptions. But Mr. Obama is too smart to know all this and more and he also must be knowing that all this can ultimately lead to Republicans sweeping with bigger numbers in the coming November polls.
What else?
Well almost everything written down here is a layman’s view on political situation in America. Many may start thinking about the advantages of a uni party system (also known as Communism in many circles) as practiced in China. No sir, I don’t agree with that. The democratic error in growth rates will reap great benefits to all the democratic countries (according to Dr. Amartya Sen). And other factors like social unrest and lack of criticism of policies in longer run will prove to be larger burden on the whole political framework than the issues like filibustering (I just love this word!!!) or lack of political consensus. Though let me be politically correct and state that communism has its own advantage. Shifting from a style of politics and reaping its advantage may take a country several decades so as of now I think Democracies are better off being democratic rather than envy the growth of some red dragon in the far east.
All the best to Mr. Obama and his team to trump the cards in his favour in coming months and it would be very interesting to see how he shapes the coming months for the benefit of America. India in particular can learn a lot from America first thing may be to decide upon the electoral seats on the basis of population or else a single senator representing a million people might be obstructing the bill supported by representatives of a 100 million people.
