Sen. Manchin weighs in on his plans for the future of the filibuster

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin declines to say whether or not he would take reducing the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the upper chamber off the table. “We are going to make the place work,” he said, when pressed by Manu Raju “...I don’t know what else I can tell you.”

           

https://www.facebook.com/cnn/posts/10162049329286509

The evidence is that the Senate and democracy worked before the 60 vote rule was put into effect. If the Republicans would get 50 to 55 Senators in office, then down the line, they can put through their own proposed laws. It would be back and forth over time. Societal approval would be reflected in the voting, who has control of the Senate. If the House and Senate are split between the two parties in the near future,, the initiation of a law starts in the House. That is a limiting mechanism. Another one is the Presidential veto. A Democratic Senate can be thwarted at some time if there is a Republican President who can veto. Then it would take 2/3 of the Senate to override. If a Republican Senate wants to work with a 50-50 majority, they could be vetoes by a Democratic President. It's shortsighted right now to focus only on keeping the filibuster and not looking at the layered system set up by the Founding Fathers. There is no mention in the Constitution that laws cannot be passed with a simple majority. If it was that important, then they would have written into it to have a 60 vote rule or a 2/3 majority. It can work because for one, neither party has had long term rule in any of the chambers. If you think that Democrats could control either chamber for long periods since the party is growing, the electoral college has delivered Republican Bush Jr. and Trump when they didn't win the popular vote. A conservative President can veto.


It's too weak it's not enough Joe we need his constituency to start protesting outside his house until he takes a more clear and concise stance against the filibuster just as we are the Senate will never work unless we reduce or eliminate the current filibuster. It will not work Mitch McConnell used it for 6 years against Barack Obama used more times in the Deep been used in a hundred years prior to that he will not change his position neither will Republicans. The only way you'll ever get Republicans to actually consider what their constituents want done is by making them go on the record voting against it because if you start making Republicans have to vote against the issues that they don't want to support but their constituents do they ain't going to be able to hide from the records and where they stood it'll kill their political careers when their opponent start pointing to all the times they voted against the people


The filibuster isn't being used as it was intended. When it is used for obstruction, it hurts the nation. And, if the minority party wants to have input, then it is squarely on their shoulders to participate in debate and compromise to do the will of the people. If the minority party wants to filibuster, the they can stand in the floor and talk for 55 hours straight with everyone present without, talking, cell phones, other work, or reading materials during the speeches. Then afterwards vote! If the Senators can't or won't play by the rules, then the filibuster is of no use to our nation.