Three Charts Explain Why Democrats Went Nuclear on the Filibuster
Politics • November 2013 • Views: 1,802
it was Republican filibusters of judicial and executive branch nominees that finally drove Democrats to act on Thursday. Democrats had struck one deal after another with Republicans to try and rein in their abuse of the filibuster, but nothing worked.
A few nominees would get through, and then another batch would promptly get filibustered. The chart below tells the tale. Under George Bush, Democrats mounted filibusters on 38 of his nominees. That’s about 5 per year. Under Obama, Republicans have filibustered an average of 16 nominees per year.
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