One idea I saw online was not to kill the filibuster, but change the rule to actually make the obstructionists hold the floor and give their speeches night and day. Seems to me that the ideal place to try this would be the voting rights act bill passed by the House. Put that up there and let McConnell and Co. talk themselves hoarse for a week or so on why Americans shouldn't be allowed to vote by mail, while Dems pound them with ads on why the GOP is pulling this stunt simply to make it harder for people to vote. I think it would end up being pretty embarrassing for the Pubs. Right now "filibustering" is way too easy and painless for the filibustering party. If you want to override majority rule, you ought to at least have to work for it. Manchin could go along with this without breaking his recent vow not to kill the filibuster.
Again, it’s not “painful” for Cruz, Hawley, and that ilk to talk for hours with their loyal Pub base watching.
And plenty of people would blame the Democrats for putting Republicans through such a wasteful exercise we know they’ll complete.
Republicans have teed up hundreds of amendments, including to preserve former President Donald Trump’s border wall, reverse Biden’s action to nix the Keystone XL pipeline and create “deficit-neutral reserve funds” on everything from supporting resources for police to prohibiting “sex-selective abortion.”
The Senate’s most robust “vote-a-rama” was in 2008, when senators voted on 44 amendments. In 2013, the process dragged on until past 5 a.m. As of Wednesday night, Republicans had already readied more than 400 amendments — signaling a brutal evening of speeches and votes ahead.
But the hard work to employ the power of reconciliation will not end when the marathon amendment process winds down, the budget resolution is adopted and senators’ resting cots are hauled away after a night of “yeas” and “nays.”
“Senate Republicans will be ready and waiting with a host of amendments to improve the rushed procedural step that's being jammed through,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor.
“We'll be getting senators on the record about whether taxpayers should fund checks for illegal immigrants, whether Democrats should raise taxes on small businesses in the midst of this historic crisis and whether generous federal funding should pour into school districts where the unions refuse to let schools open,” McConnell said. “And this is just a small taste.”
Heard another good point refuting the "We can't get rid of the filibuster because Republicans will abuse majority vote" argument. All Republicans care about is tax cuts and judges and neither of those has a filibuster anyway. It will be tougher for them to pass the truly awful stuff they want to do because those things are unpopular like getting rid of ACA.
Fuck Mitch and his disingenuous bullshit about the sanctity of the Senate
Indeed. Mitch has done more to wreck "the sanctity of the Senate" than anyone in American history. To have him bitching about Democrats "changing the Senate forever" is rich. He's likely just worried that Democrats may finally be figuring out how to get things done in the Senate over even a unified GOP opposition. God forbid Democrats actually pass some legislation they want! It's the equivalent of all the GOP complaints about Democrats being "divisive" after four years of Donald Freaking Trump as their beloved leader.
"Aren't you going to have to choose between preserving the filibuster, and advancing your agenda?" Stephanopoulos asked Biden in their interview outside Philadelphia.
"Yes, but here's the choice: I don't think that you have to eliminate the filibuster, you have to do it what it used to be when I first got to the Senate back in the old days," Biden said. "You had to stand up and command the floor, you had to keep talking."
"So you're for that reform? You're for bringing back the talking filibuster?" Stephanopulos asked.
"I am. That's what it was supposed to be," Biden said.
"It's getting to the point where, you know, democracy is having a hard time functioning," Biden told Stephanopoulos.