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It’s official: at least one Republican senator is now committed to filibustering the raising of the debt limit unless Democrats give in to his demands. From The Hill:
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has told supporters in Utah that he will filibuster the legislation to authorize Treasury Department officials to add to the nation’s multitrillion-dollar debt.
[...]
Lee said he might be persuaded to back off if Obama and Democratic leaders agreed to a major concession, which GOP strategists consider highly unlikely.
“The concession would [have to] be something very significant, very permanent and very binding, like a balanced-budget amendment — and passage of it, not just a vote,” Lee said.
Now, Democrats wouldn’t actually need Lee’s vote to increase the debt ceiling so they won’t give in to his specific demands, but Lee has moved the fight to the right and strengthened the hand of his fellow Republican senators.
By threatening to filibuster the bill, Lee is basically requiring it to get at least 60 votes in the Senate, giving other Senate Republicans leverage to make more “reasonable” hostage demands.
Of course, Democrats could take all the power out of Lee’s reckless filibuster threat with their own threat to use a point of order to simply eliminate the filibuster, but that would require backbone and admitting they never actually needed to give into any of the GOP hostage-taking over the past two years.
Nor would this even be a problem if President Obama hadn’t publicly said he “must” give in to these hostage-taking tactics. . . or if raising the debt ceiling had been included in the Bush tax cut deal. . . or if Democrats hadn’t thrown away their opportunity to reform the filibuster. . . or if Democrats had done the smart thing two years ago by just totally eliminating all future debt ceiling votes.
It isn’t that the Republicans are good at the legislative gamesmanship, it’s just that Democrats, like the extinct Dodo bird, will choose to basically walk right in to even the most obvious traps.
The smart money says that this debt ceiling fight will end with another Republican victory, with the GOP getting even more draconian cuts from domestic programs.
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Thank you for the excellent write up Jon.
Democrats MUST stand up on this and tell the punk bully assholes to fuck off.
I hope you won’t be upset if I don’t hold my breath.
Hostage taking? Like what happened at the American embassy in Iran, circa 1979?
So much for that civility thingie that was all the rage a few months ago.
Which is exactly what Obama AND the other Democrats in DC want.
The trick, and their number one goal over the next few weeks, is to somehow allow for this end result while maintaining the appearance of opposition.
Since when have Republicans EVER been interested in civility??
LOL, never mind, the question itself is so absurd it’s funny.
I can’t wait for the Obamabots to start calling me for contributions to President Rightwing Asshole’s re-elect campaign…
Sometimes I just don’t get where you’re coming from David.
How can you type that first paragraph, and come to the conclusion in the second? You just listed about 5 ways the Democrats could’ve avoided this trap and CHOSE not to, yet you then claim they’re just Dodo’s wondering unknowingly into it? Bullshit!
They are in this ‘trap’ because they CHOSE to be in it, and all of their ACTIONS to date prove it. I challenge anyone to link to or point out an ACTION (not a speech) taken by any Democratic leader of either House that would provide evidence to the contrary. Anyone???
You have every right to your opinion, however, I worry about you. Are you like the Any press is good press kind of person?
This will be fun watching the Teabaggers make their poodle Obama do as they say. They want Obama to surrender and give more to corporations. And he will because he always does.
Obama will turn belly up, and whimper as he gives everything away. It is new that the Congressional Teabaggers will get to threaten and abuse Obama, before his Budget Cave-In. Obama does not fight rightwingers because he is a rightwinger. Obama will blame the “Progressives” for his latest failure. Or he will blame the Progressives for everything.
David is not the author. Jon is.
DING DING DING DING DING!
No more calls, kids, we have a winner…
Giving in to blackmail breeds blackmail.
Call this Bozo’s bluff. Shut it down. Shut it all down.
Pull the plug on the power and water flowing from the dams on the Colorado to
the welfare queen farmers in Utah. Close the ATC tower at SLC.
Cancel all Federal grants to universities in Utah.
/alternative universe
because of course Obama will cave.
No. There is one thing missing. I’ll let you guess. It has four letters, begins with a “g” and ends with an “s” and rhymes with buns.
After two years, I believe it is time to recognize that the Democratic party is NOT caught in a trap. They are doing exactly what their corporate campaign contributors lobbied for but must provide the illusion they are “helpless”.
Heh, that reminds of a comment I read here the other day from Boxturtle???? (Actually not sure who it was, sorry. I would credit it properly if I could remember).
Anyway the comment was something along the lines of:
Maybe we should be thankful Obama didn’t handle Libya the same way he did Republicans, otherwise he would’ve started the war off by surrendering.
Whoever said it, it sure was funny, and deserves some more attention. *g*
First rule of Congressional Kabuki…
Ugh, you’re right, my bad.
Doh, can’t edit it either. Sorry Jon. (And sorry David.)
Jon, don’t you realize that the dems are half of the one-party system? This is just how the game is played. It’s all kabuki designed to make it look like there are two parties opposing each other…
Ah, so this threatened filibuster is more of a senate procedure which is currently allowed and not an actual hostage-taking? I’m relieved.
It’s more of an unconstitutional senate procedure currently allowed and is an actual hostage taking.
Just keeping it real.
O/T — Just wanted to say it’s been great being here at the Lake but I need to say goodbye to the people I’ve enjoyed reading, like eCahn, Margaret, Dragon, Demi, Mauimom, KrisA, Oldnslow, TCU, Boo, Mason, MattCarmody, Marinara, Dakine, Onitgoes, Sharkbabe, Ubetcha, The Malcontent, LetsGetItDone, CBL, Kelly, Karem M, etc. (If I left anybody out I’m sorry.)
I had the temerity to challenge BMaz on something and, based on his threat, I’m pretty sure I’m about to banned from FDL and its affiliated site. Might lurk to read and learn but won’t be able to contribute.
Lawrence O’Donnell taking on Eric Cantor’s “HR one becomes the law of the land….”
Cantor obviously has gone to the same Kochroach boot camp as L’il Scottie Walker.
Guessing you never heard of symbolism.
Don’t give up the ship. I have no idea what you’re talking about, but keep with the program until whatever happens happens.
Oh stop it.
Democrats rarely threatened to filibuster anything, Democrat Leaders like Harry Reid lay down without a fight. They simply say they “don’t have the votes”. So they just give up. It is Kabuki. Theatre.
Harry Reid honors Republican Holds, but ignores holds by his own party. More Kabuki. Theatre.
R and D are two sides of the same coin.
The D’s are not walking unwittingly into a R trap. They created the trap themselves. The D’s want Domestic Austerity for us. Aand tax cuts, welath and riches for the richest one percent.
It is a sick joke.
What a bunch of scumbags. R and D.
They’re playing right into o trap. This way he can give them everything they want and say he did all he could. Hell they couldn’t put 60 votes together when they had them.
Banned, why? If your making a statement than it should be anwsered but if your just screaming well I don’t know.
Odd how people hate the filibuster when it’s used against their desired legislation, yet it’s a necessary and fundamental necessity of the system when they need it.
We’ve had what, almost 170 some years of effort to get rid of or limit the filibuster and yet here it is. Maybe politicians like it.
Troll infestation. I’m outta here.
Yes I do believe I’ve heard of it, in fact I recall being told that crosshair symbols were indicative of inherent violent tendencies. Or something.
HMMMM, Lee, Utah. Why does that name ring a bell?
Oh, yeah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Lee
I’ve noticed that the number of spam emails from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is proportional to the number of times Democratic senators capitulate to Republicans or drop the ball. If you plot the function on graph paper, the curve is upwardly sloping.
Odd how Republicans have turned what used to be a very rare device and turned it into a de facto requirement for sixty votes on every. Single. Vote. What’s worse is the4 Vichycrats rolling over and letting them.
FWIW, I doubt that you’re banned.
Stop it. It’s not analogous even in paranoid conservaworld.
I wouldn’t say goodbye if I were you. I don’t know what you said to bmaz but he was what I considered to be quite sexist and out of line with demi recently and lost just about every ounce of respect I had for him. I wouldn’t sweat it. I’ve never been banned and I’ve gone off pretty strongly before.
I read that exchange BP. FWIW, that’s a place we don’t, (and shouldn’t IMO), go here but I don’t think you’ve been banned.
x2
Ah, good to know. So who gets to make the rules on what language is allowed in political discourse and what isn’t?
On your own blog, you. On Jane’s blog, her. You sound like Glenn Beck, always whining about how mean liberals are being to you. Why don’t you take your ball and go home then? I don’t see a rush of people demanding you stay and endure the “slights” made to you.
Cass Sunstein and Total Information Awareness.
Where did I say I had personalized this? I’m not certain where or how you got that.
Ugh, I hate it when czars advocate banning things.
At least now I know.
Is there any chance at all that they’ll at least make the assholes actually filibuster over this?
No, not a rhetorical Q, a real Q. My old brain has apparently completely lost track of what the final result was for “reforming Senate procedures” this past January.
The chances are roughly the same as those of Eastern Michigan University playing in this year’s BCS championship game.
Senate Democrats are one of the most timid, risk-averse species ever to roam the Earth. Which, at the rate they’re going, they won’t be doing much longer.
He expects the Democrats to magic up a constitutional amendment before he drops his filibuster?
In a couple of months?
Does this guy even know what he is talking about?
I will make my response short: Piss on both parties
false! this is NOT true.
let him filibuster. how long will one person be able to last?
then all that is needed is simple majority.
those are the senate rules. regular order.
the problem is that the DEMOCRATIC party leadership won’t do it.
please read powwow. if you can refute the diary and all the research behind it, by all means do. but if you can’t then please, please just stop.
http://my.firedoglake.com/powwow/2011/01/25/debating-filibuster-vs-optional-cloture-the-self-inflicted-catch-22-in-senate-rule-xxii/
Ah, good to know. So who gets to make the rules on what language is allowed in political discourse and what isn’t?
The President of the United States.
“I’ve said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts,” Obama said of the reasoning behind his capitulation. “I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people, and I was not willing to see them get harmed.”
Not only did the President doublecross his own political supporters (at the same time unfairly insulting Republicans, the GOP wasn’t breaking any laws), he undermined decades of consistent US policy intended to discourage our adversaries from kidnapping US citizens for use as bargaining chips.
NGUYEN: While they don’t negotiate with hostage-takers, U.S. officials say they are doing all they can to secure Jeffrey Ake’s release. The Indiana businessman was abducted from a Baghdad construction site on Monday. A video showing him surrounding by masked gunmen aired on Arab television Wednesday. Now the U.S. embassy in Iraq says it has a twenty-five member team searching for Ake.
Which brings us to our e-mail question today: current U.S. policy is not to negotiate with hostage-takers. Do you think that is the right thing to do?
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0504/16/smn.01.html
Exactly, Kabuki theater 101. Besides the banksters will make sure the debt ceiling is raised, they wouldn’t allow default on all those T-Bills would they?
No! FFS! How many bloody times do people have to be told? There are no “traps”. There are no “hostages”. Everything that is happening is part of the Demopublican plan to acheive exactly their objectives. It should be pretty freakin’ obvious by now that everything that happened under Bambi’S watch so far happened exactly the way Bambi wanted it to. Massive slashing of social programs and war on poor people is what Bambi wants. He’s a fascist tool. The Rethugs are helping him along. They all get along fine with one another.
Reply to oldnslow @ #1. . .
Certainly! But it’s not likely to happen. There are too many blue dog Dems at risk who will on the 2012 ballot. The (presently) notional filibuster is aimed at them, I think, as a revealing side show.
Suggestions to do away with filibuster. . .
The filibuster is occasionally as useful to the majority as it is to the minority. It allows the majority to safely float something the strongest segment of their base really wants, even while knowing there are some negative consequences which should be urgently avoided. They let the minority filibuster the whole thing away, and pander to the base with, “well, we tried!”
We’ll never be rid of filibusters.
I heard that Rand Paul is going to filibuster unless both the House and the Senate vote to abolish the Federal Reserve and the President pledges to sign the bill.
Sell your stock!