re: #183 palomino

Maybe, but reconciliation has been used many times before without either party losing much (more) credibility.

Likely there will be a big outcry IF this passes, but mostly from people who are already crying out loudly now so I don’t think things will seem that much different…the teapartiers are already at fever pitch, how do you crank that up?

And when most people realize the bill doesn’t really turn us into Bolsheviks, and doesn’t even affect most people directly, ugly process will be largely forgotten. Remember, most Americans neither know nor care what a filibuster is.

Now that there won’t be any more filibusters, ever, on any topic, both parties will find that it becomes impossible to settle an issue. Health care passes, 2010. Health care “reform” un-passed, 2016. Re-passed, 2026. And so on. And it’ll be the same way with respect to any contentious issue.

The filibuster was a good institution. It meant we had to arrive at some sort of accomodation with each other. The momentary majority didn’t have untramelled scope to enact law. When Bush had the Senate, the Democrats understood this. Up until now, both parties have always understood this.