The Senate is our own Afghanistan. It's where good bills go to die.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

The House has outperformed the Senate in just about every single issue. Their bills are almost always much better than the Senate versions.

They actually pass good stuff occasionally. I guess there are too many of them to buy off as effectively/cheaply as the Senate can be bought off

They have bills for both single payer healthcare and trying to revive the public option. Good for them! Too bad their counterparts in the Senate will be cutting them off at the knees at every opportunity.

[givemebackmycountry]

1. That gets a BIG rec from me - a good analogy.

It's so true.

The senate is stocked with too many old, rich, white men and they all have to go.
Term limits are in need, although that probably will only increase the amount of theft, because they will only have a brief period of time to steal every dollar they can get their hands on.

Useless fuckers, all of them.

[TheWraith]

7. Actually, it's not even really that.

It's the filibuster in the Senate. We can consistently mass a majority vote in the House, and the same in the Senate, but the Republicans demand a supermajority on everything there. If we needed 51 instead of 60, we'd have a much smoother time of it.

[Lorien]

2. There are many long time Senators who need to be primaried. nt

[metapunditedgy]

5. Blanche Lincoln's primary certainly got some attention... n/t

[pleah]

3. You got that right. :(

K&R

[ladjf]

4. Until the filibuster rule is changed, there will be no effective government

in the U.S. nt

[metapunditedgy]

6. Filibuster is a red herring. If the Democrats in Senate are serious, they'll

let the filibuster play out. I think many times, they're all too happy to let the issue die off without a fight.

What we *really* need is a rule saying that if you *threaten* to filibuster, then you have to actually do it.

[TheWraith]

8. The filibuster doesn't work the way you think it does.

You don't actually need to keep people talking in the Senate in order to block the vote. The Repubs have been filibustering this whole time.

[metapunditedgy]

9. Wikipedia says:

In the modern filibuster, the senators trying to block a vote do not have to hold the floor and continue to speak as long as there is a quorum, although the Senate Majority Leader may require an actual traditional filibuster if he or she so chooses.

Again, if we're not calling the GOP bluff, we're not serious about the issue.

Is there a list available of issues that the Republicans are officially filibustering?