DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Biden won’t embrace filibuster reforms even as the rest of his party does

Biden won’t embrace filibuster reforms even as the rest of his party does

The president’s “preference” is the status quo, the White House says. Activists don’t think that’s sustainable.

President Joe Biden isn’t budging from his desire to keep the filibuster in place; at least not yet. And activists demanding reforms are growing increasingly befuddled by the administration’s hesitance.

With more Senate Democrats expressing a willingness to abolish or modify the legislative filibuster, which establishes a 60-vote threshold to move most bills through the Senate, the White House on Monday continued to deflect on the issue.

“The president’s preference is not to get rid of the filibuster,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday, repeating Biden’s position on maintaining the rule. “His preference is not to make different changes to the rules, to the filibuster rules.”

Psaki’s statement was a reassertion of the White House’s long-standing position. But it came at a semi-critical juncture for the filibuster reform movement. On Sunday, one leading opponent of eliminating the filibuster, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), expressed a willingness to make some changes to the rule, prompting a wave of jubilation among progressives who have pushed for reforms.

The president’s reluctance to go as far as one of his party’s most moderate members puts him at odds with civil rights leaders, labor and social justice advocates, as well as an increasing number of Democrats in and out of Congress. Eventually, they say, Biden is going to have to address the issue more directly rather than stick to carefully-crafted statements.

“My question is how can President Biden stay out of the debate, when the filibuster is preventing him from keeping the promises he made to the American people, how is that possible?” said Aimee Allison, president of She the People, which focuses on boosting women in politics and has joined other progressive groups in fighting for a $15 an hour wage. “Sooner or later the administration is going to have to deal with the filibuster.”

Rev. Al Sharpton said he “respects” Biden’s views on the filibuster but he expects the “antiquated” rule to come up during a regular meeting between top civil rights groups on Tuesday.

“We cannot come out of this period without legislation,” said Sharpton. “We need to come out of this with voting legislation and police reform, and a filibuster is a tangible impediment to doing both.”

Psaki’s comments didn’t rule out the possibility of the president backing filibuster reform, merely saying his “preference” was not to do it. And officials at progressive outside groups who’ve spoken to administration officials about its agenda items, and the ways in which the filibuster complicates them, say the White House has never explicitly said the filibuster must absolutely stay in place, nor have said that they want to completely abolish it.

Activists who’ve met with the White House about filibuster reform haven’t been told to stay quiet either, even as they ramp up pressure campaigns. Instead, administration officials have asked advocates to give them time to find pathways under the existing Senate rules to pass a minimum wage hike, voting rights, police reform and other big items Biden promised during the campaign.

When Psaki reiterated Biden’s position on Monday, she pointed to Congress’ ability to pass the president’s Covid relief plan without nuking the filibuster as justification. “Look at what we’ve been able to accomplish in the last six weeks,” she said. “He’s on the verge of passing a historic relief bill that’s going to cut child poverty in half and create 7 million jobs.”

Psaki added that Biden wants to work on a “bipartisan basis” as the administration pursues an infrastructure package.

But opponents of the legislative filibuster quickly pointed out that the sweeping coronavirus relief bill soon to hit Biden’s desk “only passed because it was exempt from the filibuster,” as Eli Zupnick, spokesman for the anti-filibuster group Fix our Senate, put it.

Right now, the filibuster debate is “an abstract issue,” said Zupnick. But as bills expanding voting rights and establishing universal gun background checks run into a Senate blockade, he predicted that the administration’s calculus could change.

“President Biden and Senate Democrats are quickly going to face a choice as bills come from the House to the Senate that are subject to filibuster,” said Zupnick. “They're going to have to choose between protecting the filibuster — an outdated, abused Senate rule that President Obama called the Jim Crow relic — or making any more progress on President Biden's agenda — they can't have it both ways.”

And it’s not just activists making the case. Last week, the two Democratic senators from Minnesota, Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar, said they support getting rid of the filibuster. On Monday, Hillary Clinton told the Washington Post that she too felt the party needed to axe the rule, more than six months after Barack Obama said it should be ended if Republicans use it to block voting rights legislation.

“I would vote to do away with the filibuster,” Clinton said. “I think it has outlasted its usefulness.”

Though progressive activists were heartened by Manchin’s remarks on filibuster reform, they described it either as a “half step” or “first step” that won’t ultimately solve Republican obstruction to Biden’s agenda. Manchin appeared to endorse a “talking filibuster” proposal on Sunday, which would allow those opposed to a bill to block it only as long as they remain physically on the Senate floor. Others have raised changes to the filibuster that would make it applicable to fewer pieces of legislation rather than outright eliminating it. Democrats currently don't have the votes to abolish the filibuster as Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have said they will protect the 60-vote threshold.

“What we need from the White House is a plan for how they're going to deliver on all these campaign promises — they have not made that clear,” said Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, a group representing service employees receiving a subminimum wage.

Filibuster opponents on and off Capitol Hill see the issue coming to a head when the Senate takes up the voting rights overhaul that the House recently passed. No Senate Republicans are expected to support the bill, which includes an automatic voter registration mandate, the restoration of voting rights to those formerly convicted of a felony and more access to the ballot box.

“Voting rights is not even a campaign platform, frankly there's no future for elections or the Democratic Party without voting rights,” Jayaraman added. “There just aren't 10 Republicans who are going to move on that. If the president is not going to move on filibuster reform, then what is it, what are they going to do?”

Progressive Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) said he understands why an “institutionalist” like Biden is using “delicate language” when discussing the filibuster. The freshman lawmaker was not discouraged by the administration’s latest comments on Monday, but he did stress that the president’s endorsement of reform could significantly influence wary moderate Democrats in the Senate.

“I suspect one of the few people in the entire world who are able to prevail upon Joe Manchin to make changes, if not outright support the repeal of the filibuster, is President Biden,” said Jones.

“What President Biden's press secretary today said was not inconsistent with the conclusion that the filibuster must be either reformed or repealed,” Jones continued. “She was simply expressing the preference of the president; the president also prefers to see his bills enacted.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/08/biden-filibuster-reform-474503

Status Quo Joe... smh

What a waste of opportunity. His comparison of his admin to FDR's admin is comical now IMHO. Just six weeks in and he is showing his soft underbelly for the fights ahead. At the end of the day, centrist corporatism and the DONOR CLASS will once again stop meaningful change. Just two months ago insurrectionists lead by a fascist President tried to overthrow his duly elected presidency and he doesn't want things to change... Biden is a fool.

And his cheerleading centrists sheeple can take their 'give him time' crap and eat it. Been here, done this. This is how we got Trump. This is how the working class is being doomed to poverty. This is how the donors want the wage slaves treated... and good ole uncle Joe is here to oblige. Or is it Tom? Doesn't matter really because a sellout is a sellout, and a loser is a loser.

He's your guy.

Maybe Joe thinks that what goes around comes around.

If there's anything that could ruffle OCD's feathers more than this, I'd love to see it.

That doesn't even register on the scale bro, lmao. Peen and some other GOPers in here think that my ragging on Biden means they are somehow winning or justified for voting Trump. They couldn't be more wrong. Biden at his absolute worst is still better than Trump.

But he deserves to be held to account as do all politicians. Don't lie, cheat and steal to get into office then say screw the working people who sent me here... that just no longer flies. And this blame game of pointing fingers when you control both houses and the Oval doesn't fly either. There is no way the parliamentarian, Joe freakin' Manchin, or Mitch McConnell can stop your agenda if you really want to fight for it. Just the facts.

I see. So how did the Covid relief bill get passed again? It sure didn't get 60 votes. You keep trying to skip the process. You keep forgetting to mention that Joe Manchin is the one you have to convince here.

You also seem to forget that a president represents all Americans, not just the progressive wing of the Democratic party. And the hilarious part of what you posted is that the Covid bill was just passed by a simple majority. That kind of shoots your entire claim of Biden refusing to pass anything with a simple majority. There's a difference between sidestepping the filibuster when you feel you have to and "embracing it".

NO president should 'embrace" the idea of doing away with the filibuster. A president should always at least try his or her best to work across the aisle. Doing away with the filibuster only means everything will be reversed back and forth every time the other party wins the majority in both the house and the senate.

Without Manchin you don't have 50 votes. Doing away with the filibuster means nothing if he doesn't vote for it. Fifty minus one isn't complicated math. Do I think that's too much power for one senator to hold? Yes I do. But that's the math.

I'm done arguing with you Pit. Your opinion means jack to me and your condescending tone in your posts is no longer palatable. I get that you're a centrist and you think that only centrist moderates are right and everybody else is radical and extreme. So if that's all you are going to bring to the conversation, just go out and yell at the kids to stay off your grass.

As per usual you refuse to actually address any of the points I brought up because you can't. That much is obvious.

What points? I'll tell you what, reply to this with a detailed list of your points and I will happily crush them. I'm probably not getting to your points because I quit reading when you start sounding like an old woman gossiping at the fence post with your degrading phrasing. Why should I EVER respond to that?

... calling him an old woman gossiping and criticizing for degrading phrasing is a big swing and miss.

All you need to do is go over these threads of the last few days to see the questions I have posed that you have refused to address. I'm tired of repeating things you have continued to ignore. It's all there.

I never called him any such thing. I compared what he said to that, there is a huge difference.

Also, it was a return shot of the phrasing he is using when addressing me. Or maybe you don't read his posts.

NOPE. If you want them answered, give me a list. I will respond point for point.

The questions are there. It is you who refused to answer them. I'm tired of asking you the same things over and over again and then someone turn around and ask me to repeat myself. Either you're willing to go back and answer them or you're not. You could have easily have addressed them the first time around. It's not my problem you decided to ignore than and go on a rant instead. I'm not doing your homework for you.

yeh bro, just stop responding to me. I'm not interested in your bommerations.

That's not going to happen and I don't take orders from progressives.

You haven't been interested in addressing much of anything so far so I didn't expect you to start now.

The GOP is all for the filibuster. I look it as Biden just reaching across the isle and working for all American’s like he promised he’d do.

Biden is not required to ever hold a press conference.

Democrats should first consider the fact that they will not always have the majority. If they went to get rid of the filibuster to push their agenda through, fine. Before they do, they should consider what Republicans could have done without a filibuster the first 2 years of Trump.

LOL...that's funny.

What do you have against old women?

Old women are boomers. In case you missed it, he hates anyone born before 1960.

Nope, just those that think it makes them smarter. But those boomers don't bother with facts.

Do you mean like the fact that just because minimum wage was dropped from the stimulus package there still isn't over three years and ten months to get it done? Like that?

Emotional, irrational responses don't make you smarter. Thinking things through and using a rational thought process doesn't make me smarter.

It just makes the math work out better. I'm not screaming "I didn't get everything I wanted!" less than seven weeks into a new administration.

https://apple.news/A0P1un07vRxu8skSTObFESg

President Biden said in an interview Tuesday that he is in favor of overhauling the filibuster rules that could help Democrats use their Senate majority to steamroll legislative initiatives without so much as looking at their Republican colleagues.
Biden did not call for an elimination of the action-- he doesn't have the support in the Senate even if he did-- but he sided with lawmakers seen as moderates who want changes to some of the rules.

I happened to have seen a little of that interview, he's clearly riding a fence here. Probably wants to kill the filibuster, but knows that is a hard sell...

It's actually a pretty easy thing to decide based on a case by case basis. People think of "bipartisan support" as only including politicians and ignoring the fact that it can also apply to people.

Take the stimulus package for example. Over half of Republican voters approved of the Covid relief package. So you most certainly had bipartisan support from the voters of both parties. By contrast not a single Republican member of the house or senate voted for it.

So the question then becomes, does Biden plan to skirt around the filibuster based on what the bipartisan support of the voters want? Or does he instead cater to the bipartisan support of Republican politicians?

It seems to me that since the majority of Republican voters approved of the stimulus package, it was the Republicans in the house and senate who were ignoring bipartisan support. It sent a clear message to Republican voters that those who represent them care more about stopping the Democrats than supporting what they actually support.

So I think honoring the filibuster will be based on a case by case basis and in large part determined by what both Democratic and Republican voters support more so than what Republican politicians support.

That's why I think if there's no other way, Democrats will circumvent the filibuster to pass an infrastructure package. There is no doubt that both the majority of both Democratic voters and Republican voters would support that.

I think the Democrats have figured out that if you pass things that Republican voters want while the very people they elected fight against it, it won't bode well for the Republicans that fight against it.

I mean let's face it, such issues would make for powerful political ads come election time.

People get their $600.

Have you looked at all the crap in that bill? Sending $10,000,000 to Pakistan for gender programs?

A Womans History Museum and Latino Museum as part of the Smithsonian?

I don't have a problem with those, but those have nothing to do with Covid relief, but hey, most everybody is getting some money so they are all for it.

I addressed that riders are included in every bill. Both parties do it. I'm not sure of the point you're trying to make here. Please address the post I made just above your past reply. And people get $1400 dollars. You mean you didn't know how much money people were getting but know the riders placed on the bill?

I just had to edit this. So our schools get billions to open safely. Our cities and towns get billions to help replace the lost tax revenue of business. Families get additional child tax credits and you seem stuck on pointing out the riders of the bill?

Name one bill passed through the legislature that didn't have riders attached. So either you never do anything or you are forced to deal with it.

I saw your reply after the above reply.


OK...14. I only looked up some of the pork attached and those were a few I could remember. There is more than that.

As for relief, I doubt we will get any.

Once again, if you were actually willing to look at the meat of the bill you would see that's simply not true.

Just as a starter, every town and city in America lost a huge amount of tax revenue from small businesses closing down. As a result every town in America is hurting. That includes Republican towns and cities. As we both know, a town or city can't just "print money". So where did you think they would get the funds to carry out and continue basic services?

At odds with national Republicans, GOP mayors welcome long-awaited COVID relief

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-relief-republican-mayors/

Coronavirus: Ohio mayors say they’ll have to cut police, fire if they don’t get federal help

https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200416/c...et-federal-help

What about our schools that need new ventilation systems and all of the Covid masks, cleaners and other essential cost related with Covid?

Tennessee schools alone will receive 2.5 billion.

Maybe I'm not clear on what you consider relief to be.

My bad. I was stuck on the $1400 each. I don't believe my wife and I qualify for a check, so I haven't paid much attention to that part of the bill.

Biden did say that he liked the OLD version of the Filibuster. That was when you had to stand up, take the floor and not relinquish it. Kinda like Mr. Smith goes to Washington. The one with Jimmy Stewart.. Great film by the way.

I get what he's saying, if you have to hold the floor for many hours/Days, you will have skin in the game..