No rush right?

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Biden in office with a majority in both houses for almost a month and no COVID relief passed. WTF, Joe? Nancy? Chuck? Anyone?

[minx]

They don't have enough of a majority, so assholes who are outliers can hold shit up by demanding income tests before a stimulus check is mailed, or adding riders to increase the minimum wage.

Same shit is going to happen with Biden's immigration package. I predict that someone like AOC will say that the cutoff for being in the country should be later than January 1, 2021 or that people shouldn't have to be on legal residence status for 5 years before applying to get a green card - shit like that.

It's frustrating as hell. I wish the Democrats could unite and do SOMETHING for the people they represent.

[bobathon]

No Rush. Rush is dead.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Here we are 3 weeks later. Bill just went to the floor for "debate" after 50 republickers voted NOT to send it there. ALL 50. I suppose we need not bother discussing the 46 or 47 that would've had to thumbs up this fucking shit if the king was still on the throne.

I'm at a loss as to why the democrats absolutely refuse to allow their testicles to drop and not only go nuclear on this but also begin to hold our own rallies in whatever way we can to get these messages out there every minute of every day about how little republicans really care about the people of this country.

[minx]

I'd like to see some new Senate rules

1) You can filibuster until the cows come home. BUT, you can only talk about the bill at hand and the issue(s) it's addressing. After all, if it's such a terrible bill, you should be able to talk for years about the evil it will bring upon us, right? And you can also propose your solution to the problem as well! What an idea!
2) During your filibuster, you can take a 5 minute bathroom break every hour. And if you drone on for more than 4 hours, you can have a 15 minute break. No lunch break - that's on your dime, not ours. If it's good enough for the retail workers of America, it's good enough for you!
3) And if you need the bill read into the official record, that's fine - not all of us are visual learners. But YOU (and anyone else who requests this service) will be required to stay at your desk in the Senate chambers for the duration of the reading. And you need to stay alert and at least give lip service to paying attention. We won't require a quiz (we're not mean), but again, the schoolchildren of our great nation are required to sit properly and pay attention, so you should too. However, because sitting is hard, I'll allow for a 10 minute break each hour to stretch and walk around.


A win-win. Republicans get to keep the damn filibuster, but neither party can abuse it. It would be nice if the Dems pushed this, but it would apply to them as well, so you can bet they won't.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Again, I think the dems should grow a spine and kill it altogether. But that's just my fancy famous talking. I have had the same thoughts as you wrote above. Absolutely no problem with reading the bill out loud. My conditions for keeping the filibuster would be....

ALL bills passed in the House must be read aloud to the FULL Senate, with transcripts of each page shown on large tv monitors. Senators must ALL be present for the entire reading. If they fail in that, they can't vote on it. Maybe an exception for illness or family emergency type stuff but they'll need a doctor's note, and sign an affadavit that they have read the Bill in full. After all, it's their job.

[minx]

I say we do it like they did it in school - each senator has to get up and read a section - so they have to pay attention to know where they are in the bill for when it's their turn.

And the House should have to do the same thing too.

Maybe then they'd start passing one bill at a time with the exception of the annual budget. Because that way they could actually look at each individual issue. Heaven forbid!