McConnell, Schumer fail to cut power-sharing deal amid filibuster snag

[pnwmom]

Source: The Hill

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) failed to reach a deal on Tuesday on organizing a 50-50 Senate as a fight over the filibuster threatens to drag out the talks for days.

The two Senate leaders met to discuss how to share power in an evenly split Senate. According to Schumer, they talked about "a whole lot of issues" but didn't reach an agreement.

The talks have snagged over a fight on the 60-vote legislative filibuster, which could drag out the negotiations for several days.


McConnell is pressing to use the power-sharing agreement to help protect the filibuster amid calls from progressives to nix the hurdle in order to help pass Democratic legislative priorities.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/534951-mcconnell-schumer-fail-to-cut-power-sharing-deal-amid-filibuster-snag

[SunSeeker]

1. Good! No fucking way should we keep the 60 vote filibuster rule that McConnell wants!

[cstanleytech]

7. Considering how he torpedoed it to ram through all those judges to stack the courts I agree 100%. nt

[SunSeeker]

8. Exactly. nt

[cstanleytech]

9. Thats why I think we could nor expand the number of SCOTUS judges and ram through some young judges.

I am not talking all liberal ones either though I do think we need to get 3 on the court as well as 3 moderate ones on top of that would bring the court back into balance with 15 judges.
Another change to SCOTUS I would love to see one day would be a change to how its run by making it so the 15 are a pool of judges and each case they hear is heard by 9 of them that are randomly picked.
That way there can be no cherry picking.

[SunSeeker]

15. Yes! At least 13 justices total--1 for each Circuit, like it used to be!

There used to only be 9 federal Circuits, that's why we have 9 justices. Butniw we have 13 Circuits. We neec to have 13 justices to properly represent the Circuit Courts.


And make DC a state! Even though Biden won by 7,000,000 in the popular vote, Trump would have won the Electoral College if just 53,000 people across 3 states had voted differently. We came very close to irreparable disaster. We can't let that happen again.

[cstanleytech]

17. Not sure about DC being a state but Puerto Rico should be for sure.

[SunSeeker]

19. Sure, PR too. Why not DC?

[cstanleytech]

21. Because its only a city and our capital and should not be a state though something does need to be

done to allow the people there to have a better say when it comes to voting in their region.
Maybe grant them the right to cast votes in one of the neighboring states of their choice?

[Tommymac]

40. An issue is also the courts and human rights.

No - those people need the rights of FULL Citizenship. FULL Representation.

As far as being 'only' a city - there are more souls in DC then in the states of Wyoming or Vermont.

That the majority just happen to be people of color is not an issue, right?

No - DC NEEDS to be a State.

[cstanleytech]

41. Giving them the right to vote in whichever neighboring state to DC would

allow them to have a say in representation though.
It’s not a perfect solution but it could work.

[Tommymac]

42. I strongly disagree. Make DC a State. Period. No excuses. The corpse of Jim Crow needs to be buried.

The Civil War is over - all citizens should have the FULL RIGHTS of Statehood.

No Justice. No Peace.

It's more then a phrase.

[cstanleytech]

46. I respectfull disagree however there is another alternative which is to make the city

part of one of the states they border.

[getagrip_already]

48. why?

They have more population than 2 existing states. They deserve statehood and we can deal with the peculiarities. They deserve 2 voting senators and how ever many reps they are due.

[getagrip_already]

47. it's a city with more residents than

Either Wyoming or Vermont.

Let's get real here. It is a city in name, but it has a very large unrepresented population.

[Marcuse]

49. Agreed, but the new State should not be named after Chris Columbus.

Also without protections statehood could lead to urban renewal, gentrification and displacement.

[cstanleytech]

50. If population was the only defining factor for statehood though there are a number of other cities

that would be ahead of Washington for statehood.

[getagrip_already]

51. but those cities HAVE voting representation...

Residents of DC do not.

And throwing them into MD or VA doesn't get them that. It just adds to the population of those states without any real representation. No house district with voting status means no representation.

[cstanleytech]

52. True but joining Washington to one of the states would grant them the equal representation

that those cities enjoy.

[getagrip_already]

53. pointless differentiation

Even if house seats get allocated to dc, they still don't have local rule. They still can't hire their own services or manage their own budget. Any laws still need to go through a foreign state.

It is NOT the same thing, and the logistics demand they get 2 senators, a governor, and house seats under their own roof.

[cstanleytech]

54. Autonomous control over their own services and budget like other cities can be done though

but granting a city its own Senators? I am not sure if that is something that should be done.

[SunSeeker]

56. You're not giving a "city" Senators. You're giving Senators to PEOPLE.

If we gave 2 Senators to the tiny population of Wyoming, why shouldn't we give 2 Senators to the ten times larger population of DC?


Population of Wyoming: 582,328
Population of DC: 5,322,000

[ahoysrcsm]

57. Can we join the Capitol City to...

let's say South Carolina, or better yet Wyoming. Let's turn those states blue, with a blue city!

[cstanleytech]

58. A nice dream but if Washington would become part of a state it would be Maryland or Virginia.

[ahoysrcsm]

59. Why, do you not like South Carolina and Wyoming?

[jaxexpat]

22. and Samoa too.

At least one more state so when Wyoming secedes we won't have to change the flags.

[bamagal62]

11. This!

[ancianita]

2. Don't give in, Chuck!

[Cha]

3. Stay Steady Sen Schumer!

[Blue Owl]

4. Three words:

Amy. Coney. Barrett.

[bamagal62]

12. Yep

[Kablooie]

5. Why can't they go back to a real filibuster?

The objector has to remain standing and speaking during his filibuster.
Once he sits down or stops talking the vote can take place.

[cstanleytech]

6. Amazing how Mitch wants to protect the filibuster now that he does not have a majority to ram

through anything he wants like SCOTUS and other federal judges.

[bamagal62]

13. Don't trust the turtle!

[Cetacea]

10. K&R

Good.

[bringthePaine]

14. do the right thing CS, and then enjoy watching turtlehead explode on EVERY VOTE👍🎉😬

[BumRushDaShow]

16. Turtle burned EVERY FUCKING BRIDGE that existed

In "normal" times, this is what they do but Turtle BROKE EVERY FUCKING RULE. WE call the shots.

[still_one]

18. It is time for the filibuster to go, it is just a matter of time

[kaotikross]

20. No need to pretend

It's an "evenly divided Senate" because it isn't. In the case of a tie, VP Harris casts the final vote. Although I have no doubt she'll be very busy compared to Pence I also have no doubt she'd show up when needed to cast any tiebreaking votes required. Mitch can suck eggs, he doesn't make the rules anymore.

[groundloop]

34. Even if VP Harris has to camp out in the Senate she'll be doing a very important job.

[Jay25]

23. I didn't realize McConnell had conversations with Democrats.

After the disrespect and bullying done by not only McConnell, but the whole Republican Party, I wouldn't waste my time or energy entertaining them.
Bipartisanship is a tactic used by republicans when Democrats hold the majority, the only time they acknowledge Democrats existence.

[pnwmom]

25. With a 50-50 Congress, all the Committees have equal numbers of D and R members,

and no legislation gets voted out of a Committee without a majority vote -- which would require at least one Republican.

So how do you suggest the Democrats accomplish anything without working with Republicans and their leadership?

[DeminPennswoods]

27. Do the committees have to have equal numbers?

That would be the polite thing to do, but not necessarily required. A tie vote should go to the majority.

Anyway, Schumer just needs to tell McConnell the price of "power-sharing" is giving up using the filibuster or Dems will eliminate it. We all know that's what McConnell would do if the situation was reversed.

[pnwmom]

31. There is no majority. Harris can only step in when it's time to vote on bills before the full Senate

She doesn't sit on every committee, breaking all the ties on them.

[Jay25]

30. Republicans are more obstructionist today, than they were with Obama.

Democrats cannot let bipartisanship water down their agenda. They are going to have to remain strong and steadfast in passing legislature that benefits the average people.

The past 4 years McConnell (with pride) has thwarted nearly every bill that came from the house, I’m not even sure he read them all. I know there has to be dialogue between both parties, I just don’t think Democrats need to yet again be the ones to (concede/give-in), for legislation to pass.

There has been too much damage done by republicans in this country, and people turned out for the vote because they are depending on Democrats to not let them down. That will not happen if they let the ‘Grim Reaper’ and other obstructionist republicans who want to see them fail, negotiate less progressive bipartisan bills. We cannot forget, these republicans are not our allies and we have to remain strong to our convictions.

[pnwmom]

32. Again, how do you get bills out of Committees, when the committees will be split 50-50?

The agreement Schumer and McConnell failed to agree on would have said that tied bills would have gone on for a Senate vote. But without that agreement a majority is required.

[Jay25]

45. In truth, I don't have an answer.

I get the point you are trying to make, ‘if they don’t communicate, how will anything ever get done’.
I just see problems getting bills out when you are dealing with Senators who still haven’t acknowledged Biden’s win, those who claim voter fraud, those that call the people who stormed the Capital ‘patriots’, QANON Senators and a Georgia Senator looking to immediately impeach Biden for no reason (I know it’s not going to happen)... When these are the type of people Democrats have to work with, there will be problems.

Democrats have to be careful with bipartisan deals so as not to alienate their base. These republicans have one goal and that is to regain control of Congress. I think McConnell will play the same bipartisanship games he played during Obama’s first 2 years that led to Republican control in 2010.

[pnwmom]

55. And our base can stop expecting the human beings who are representing us

to do the impossible.

We are a nation of laws, and Congress is bound by them, too. Having a 1 vote margin on full Senate VOTES, thanks to VP Harris, won't allow us to bypass the Congressional committee system, where we will need at least 1 Republican vote to send any bill to the floor.

[groundloop]

35. I'd read that if there's a tie in a committee that a bill would move on

An article a day or two indicated that Schumer and Moscow Mitch had at least reached agreement on that point. Hopefully that's still the case.

[rdking647]

24. tell mcconeell to fuck off

no fillabuster
expand the court
dc and PR states

and thats just a start

[Mr. Sparkle]

26. Mitch "the filibuster" McConnell can go fuck himself

fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!

[llmart]

28. I wouldn't trust McConnell on anything.

Mitch only does what's in his best interest. Note to Chuck: the Dems are holding all the cards right now so use it. Don't give them an inch. Let us not forget how he treated President Obama.

[bucolic_frolic]

29. The minority should be heard, but not have the means to obstruct

Limit the filibuster, in duration, in frequency. Like timeouts in pro sports. 5 a year, one absolute, 2 eight day, 2 five day.

[Kid Berwyn]

33. When did GOP respect Senate Democrats over the last 12 years?

Not once.

[Montauk6]

36. Uhhh, question from the back....

In a 50-50 Senate, who's the Majority and who's the Minority leaders again please?

[bluecollar2]

37. Good question...

Was wondering the same thing myself.

[Turin_C3PO]

39. Schumer will be Majority leader.

McConnell minority leader. Committees will be 50/50.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

38. Fuck Mitch McConnell, the grim reaper of all constructive legislation.

End the damn filibuster and render McConnell powerless to continue to deliberately harm the people of the USA.

[Marthe48]

43. Schumer don't need a stinkin' deal

That would be like Charlie Brown making a deal with Lucy about the football. mcconnell deserves no accommodation by Dems. Every time he stands up, somebody should tell him to sit down and shut up.

[Lulu KC]

44. Good!

Based on the little I know about Schumer, what we have to watch for is acquiescing. I've been afraid McConnell's holding the "We'll convict him if you'll release your power," card.