Republican Senate filibustered 62nd time a new record

[Historic NY]

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Republican Senate
minority today filibustered an omnibus budget bill, setting a modern-day
record for blocking the most legislation during a congressional session. A new report released today by the Campaign for America's Future details the 62 times conservatives have used the filibuster to block legislation (or force modification of bills) in the first session of the 110th Congress. In just the first year of this two-year Congress, their use of the filibuster in the Senate topped the previous record, reached during the entire 107th Congress.

The new report outlines every bill filibustered, vetoed or threatened
to be vetoed by President Bush. Conservatives filibustered bills to end the occupation of Iraq, provide soldiers in Iraq rest time equal to their
deployments, support renewable energy and grant residents of the District
of Columbia representation in Congress. Today's record-breaker involved a
$516 billion budget package passed by the House to fund the federal
government in 2008. The conservative minority demanded $20 billion
additional funding for the war and opposed House language to bring troops
home, and threatened a filibuster to prevent the bill from getting an up or down vote.

"In just one session, a minority in Congress has prevented a
mind-blowing 62 pieces of legislation from going to the floor for an up or down vote," said Campaign for America's Future co-director Roger Hickey. "Our report shows how over and over again, the uncompromising minority has thwarted the will of majorities in Congress and of the American people, holding the Senate floor hostage to a radical right-wing agenda."

Sixty votes are needed to invoke cloture and end a filibuster. The 62nd
cloture vote of the session is more than any single session of Congress
since at least 1973, the earliest year cloture votes are available online
from the Senate. Republicans are on pace to force 134 cloture votes to cut off a filibuster, according to the Campaign for America's Future analysis, more than double the historical average of the last 35 years.

http://www.prnewswire.com/publicinterest/

<snip>

** NOTE: To obtain an electronic copy of the Campaign for America's
Future's report "Block and Blame: The Conservative Strategy of Obstruction in the 110th Congress," please visit

http://home.ourfuture.org/assets/block-and-blame.pdf **

[bullimiami]

1. republicans have no rules, they fight to win. democrats just dont get it.

they keep playing by the old rules.

[Lasher]

2. So they're on track to double the previous record for obstructionist minorities, right?

Looks like something good to cite when Republicans criticize the Democratic congressional majority because they didn't get enough done. Fact is, White House & congressional Republicans had a deliberate intention from the very beginning of this year to do whatever they could to obstruct everything, then blame Democrats for it.

[K Gardner]

3. If a MINORITY can do this, does it really make any sense at all that we have to

crawl across glass to get ONE Lone Senator to even try to filibuster? I just don't fucking get it.

"Our report shows how over and over again, the uncompromising minority has thwarted the will of majorities in Congress and of the American people, holding the Senate floor hostage to a radical right-wing agenda."

[Lasher]

4. They are emboldened by a right wing extremist president.

The GOP Senate minority is blocking whatever they can, and they know Junior is waiting to veto everything else. I hope we are able to punish Republican incumbents for this in next year's elections.

[The Traveler]

5. The other problem is we have

a razor thin majority. We really need to work on improving that ratio ... :)

[Lasher]

10. Of course, that's the elephant in the room. (pun intended)

Here's where we stand right now: Potential pickups that are either 'favored' or 'leans' Democratic are Virginia, Colorado and New Hampsire. Other possible pickups in the 'tossup' category are New Mexico and possibly Minnesota.

Of course things might improve but right now it's looking like we could pick up 5 Senate seats if we do well. But there is a real possibility we could lose Louisiana.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2008#Predictions

[cali]

12. I'm going to rearrange your Senate forecasts

a wee bit. Strongly leans dem: VA, NH, NM. Tossups: CO, MN,
Others that aren't a bit out of the realm of possibility: AK, ME. I think you're right about LA, though.

[Lasher]

13. OK that's cool.

This was the first time I've put up a Senate election 2008 forecast and I pretty much just repeated the average of what I saw in Wiki.

[Occam Bandage]

6. Guys? THIS is why the Democrats aren't getting anything done.

[K Gardner]

7. I think my question is why, when we are the majority in both houses,

we can't stop anything from going through (or have a hard time doing so), but the other side in the Minority stops chyte all the time.

Problly I need a civics lesson, but it'll have to wait till tomorrow cuz I'm off to bed ! :pals:

[Occam Bandage]

8. "we can't stop anything from going through"

What do you mean? Everything that passes the House and Senate, passes the House and Senate because we wanted it to. Nothing comes to a vote that we don't want. Now, if you want to know why bad stuff gets through...well, that would be in cases where the leadership thinks no bill is worse than a bad bill, and gets the best bill they can negotiate with the Republicans.

[orleans]

9. republikas: OBSTRUCTIONISTS! n/t

[Dark]

11. But of course they have the votes for impeachment and removal.

Sure, they can't even gat enough votes to get children's health care or funding stem cell research. But they would have no problem getting the 2/3 needed for removal from office.