It seems like our representatives don't represent their constituents earnestly and honestly, just one upmanship games for control of an imaginary chessboard.
I may be wrong but I believe the votes you were referring to were not actually votes on the resolutions but votes to end debate and then vote on the resolutions. This cloture motion, the filibuster, requires 60 votes to pass, which is why the Republicans need Democrat support. The Republicans have a majority but they do not have 60 votes. The actual vote on the resolution only needs a simple majority. The Republicans could always invoke the “nuclear option” of revising the Senate rules so that cloture would only require a simple majority for issues like funding the government. But they seem reluctant to do that. Hard to see how they can blame the Democrats for the shutdown.
Hi Susan! I didn’t get into this because it’s sort of in the weeds, but actually — in this case — both CR proposals were set at a 60-vote threshold for passage, not just to end debate. This was done as part of a unanimous consent agreement (inked on Sept 18) so that both bills could be fast-tracked and considered for final passage at a 60-vote threshold. In general, though (absent a unanimous agreement like this), you’re right that it usually takes 60 votes for cloture, and then 51 votes for final passage. (This move kinda just collapsed those votes into one, so the CRs would still require 60 votes to advance like they always would but they wouldn’t need to jump through all the hoops.) Personally, I don’t agree that this is a good ground to blame Republicans for the shutdown, since Republicans are just playing by the current rules! I don’t think it makes sense for Democrats to argue “this is Republicans’ fault because they aren’t changing the rules we’ve had for decades so they don’t need the votes we’re refusing to give them.” But on that we can agree to disagree!
Thanks for the clarification. I do think though that when you have a situation that requires more than a simple majority to get a measure passed reality dictates that if you don’t have the votes you will need to negotiate and compromise. Republicans may be playing by the rules but they aren’t walking the talk.
I'm struck by how contrived the whole shutdown process is. If lapsed appropriations actually means something it should be affecting the entire goverment, not just 1/4 or less of it. If it doesn't, what are we even doing here? Given the complete arbitariness of what gets counted as essential or not, the pre-1980 interpretation seems much more logical to me.
All the current process does is give the minority party a cudgel to destroy an enormous amout of wealth and productivity, a cudgel Republicans have been more than happy to use out of spite in the past and now Dems are coming around to using as well. The whole process just seems insanely stupid and wasteful to me.
The lack of urgency is probably because so much of the government isn't shutting down. It's easy to look at all of the services and payments still continuing and discount the millions of people who are going without pay and services for an unknown amount of time. If a shutdown *really* meant a full government shut down I think both sides would care a lot more about avoiding one.
Imagine if we had functional Legislative and Executive Branches … and instead of a sad report on reality, Gabe’s reports was an online review of an episode of a long-running TV series.
I have to think we’d blast the TV show as stupid and unbelievable … surely nobody would accept this level of buffoonery on a TV show.
Gabe - You’re the Explainer-in-Chief, thank you. Seems like, the politicians, on both sides sides of the aisle, care more about their bank balances, not much else.
"the enemy from within" we've got to find a way to wean from such a money oriented culture...especially in the realm of politics and campaigning. I totally respect Gabe for continuing his free email approach and would like to see more ideas on how politicians could detach from the incessant donation requests.
It seems like our representatives don't represent their constituents earnestly and honestly, just one upmanship games for control of an imaginary chessboard.
I may be wrong but I believe the votes you were referring to were not actually votes on the resolutions but votes to end debate and then vote on the resolutions. This cloture motion, the filibuster, requires 60 votes to pass, which is why the Republicans need Democrat support. The Republicans have a majority but they do not have 60 votes. The actual vote on the resolution only needs a simple majority. The Republicans could always invoke the “nuclear option” of revising the Senate rules so that cloture would only require a simple majority for issues like funding the government. But they seem reluctant to do that. Hard to see how they can blame the Democrats for the shutdown.
Hi Susan! I didn’t get into this because it’s sort of in the weeds, but actually — in this case — both CR proposals were set at a 60-vote threshold for passage, not just to end debate. This was done as part of a unanimous consent agreement (inked on Sept 18) so that both bills could be fast-tracked and considered for final passage at a 60-vote threshold. In general, though (absent a unanimous agreement like this), you’re right that it usually takes 60 votes for cloture, and then 51 votes for final passage. (This move kinda just collapsed those votes into one, so the CRs would still require 60 votes to advance like they always would but they wouldn’t need to jump through all the hoops.) Personally, I don’t agree that this is a good ground to blame Republicans for the shutdown, since Republicans are just playing by the current rules! I don’t think it makes sense for Democrats to argue “this is Republicans’ fault because they aren’t changing the rules we’ve had for decades so they don’t need the votes we’re refusing to give them.” But on that we can agree to disagree!
Thanks for the clarification. I do think though that when you have a situation that requires more than a simple majority to get a measure passed reality dictates that if you don’t have the votes you will need to negotiate and compromise. Republicans may be playing by the rules but they aren’t walking the talk.
Great job as usual, You are an amazing young man with a brilliant future. PLEASE don't let it go to your head. God bless.
Great explainer and interesting reporting.
I'm struck by how contrived the whole shutdown process is. If lapsed appropriations actually means something it should be affecting the entire goverment, not just 1/4 or less of it. If it doesn't, what are we even doing here? Given the complete arbitariness of what gets counted as essential or not, the pre-1980 interpretation seems much more logical to me.
All the current process does is give the minority party a cudgel to destroy an enormous amout of wealth and productivity, a cudgel Republicans have been more than happy to use out of spite in the past and now Dems are coming around to using as well. The whole process just seems insanely stupid and wasteful to me.
The lack of urgency is probably because so much of the government isn't shutting down. It's easy to look at all of the services and payments still continuing and discount the millions of people who are going without pay and services for an unknown amount of time. If a shutdown *really* meant a full government shut down I think both sides would care a lot more about avoiding one.
Glad you were there. Glad I wasn't.
G'mar Chatimah Tovah - an easy and meaningful fast.
Imagine if we had functional Legislative and Executive Branches … and instead of a sad report on reality, Gabe’s reports was an online review of an episode of a long-running TV series.
I have to think we’d blast the TV show as stupid and unbelievable … surely nobody would accept this level of buffoonery on a TV show.
😔
Democrats will cave. Only a matter of time.
Gabe - You’re the Explainer-in-Chief, thank you. Seems like, the politicians, on both sides sides of the aisle, care more about their bank balances, not much else.
$400,000,000$ per day ! ¡
"the enemy from within" we've got to find a way to wean from such a money oriented culture...especially in the realm of politics and campaigning. I totally respect Gabe for continuing his free email approach and would like to see more ideas on how politicians could detach from the incessant donation requests.