Strap in and please keep your hands and feet within the car at all times. Following the results of the 2022 midterms, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has already hit the ground running, and he soesn’t figure to stop. Schumer and Pelosi want to use the lame duck session of 2022 to take as many GOP 2023 House weapons off of the table as possible.
Today the Senate passed the Marriage Equality Act, which not only codifies the sanctity of same sec marriage into law, it also canceled out the heinous DOMA Law, which wasn’t repealed, but only neutralized when the Obama DOJ refused to defend it in the Supreme Court, leading the way to neuter the law. This makes it official.
But now it’s time to put the metal to the pedal. The Democrats want to pass a budget before January that will take away the GOP House’s ability to use a government shutdown as hostage. The nice thing is that they can do that through budget reconciliation, overruling the filibuster rule in the Senate. And while they’re at it, they can add an amendment that extends the debt ceiling for at least 2 years, or to my preference, get rid of the (rhymes with) ducking thing altogether, by just saying that the US government is authorized to borrow what it needs to in order to keep the government solvent and running.
There’s more, but it would likely require carve outs to the filibuster. But now that Sinema and Manchin have seen the way the wind is blowing in 2022, and facing reelections in 2024, they may get off their high horses. Especially when they’ll need DNC and DSCC support in 2 years.
First, they need to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. That would be a quantum leap in stopping the GOP’s attempts to suppress the vote. Manchin had the Kayak Navy paddling out to his houseboat to bitch him out, and the AZ Democratic party wants Sinema gone. Voting with the angels could rehabilitate them. And then there’s a DACA fix, along with passing a version of the George Floyd Police Reform Act. What a way to go out in a blaze of glory, huh?
But despite what you think, the 2023 GOP dominated House may not be quite the vast legislative wasteland you might think it will be. Because of two simple things. First, there’s the traditional House Conservative caucus. Whether they eventually fold and back McCarthy or not, they’ll be a thorn in McCarthy’s side. Because they were elected or reelected in critical swing districts, and their constituents sent them to Washington to move a positive agenda for the country, not to savage Hunter Biden.
But the real reason that the 2023 narrowly GOP dominated congress may not be quite the vast wasteland of legislation that everybody expects comes back to an arcane House rule. Normally it is the House Speaker that controls the agenda as to what legislation is brought legislation is brought to the floor for a vote. But there’s a kink. According to House rules, any House member can put a petition on the floor to call a particular bill to a full House vote. If the petition gets 218 signatures in the required time, the Speaker has no choice, he has to call the bill to the floor for a vote.
Which brings us right back to the traditional GOP conservative caucus. They were elected to get results, not to indulge in partisan bullshit. If the Democrats keep putting forward popular legislation in petitions, the moderate GOP caucus refuses to sign onto them at their own risk.
There ya go my dear friends and readers. The Democrats basically have the ability to not only pass popular legislation in the lame duck session, but to defang the GOP from their most likely prongs of assault in 2023. And if the Democrats can convince as few as 3-5 moderate Republicans to sign on to legislation that their constituents will love them for in 2023, then they may well be able to make Speaker McCarthy look like the feckless tool that he is. Don’t touch that dial.
“Voting with the angels could rehabilitate them.”
Or so let they hope! Full disclosure: I am not a resident of either Arizona or West Virginia. But I will never trust those sons of bitches, and I would candidly advise the
people of those two great states not to either.
I meant to write “Or so let them hope.”
Still a damn sad reflection when the voters put the insurrectionist party back in power. Chickens desperate to put the butcher in charge. Damn sad statement on our culture.
Considering the gerrymander factor, it’s not really that much of a statement.
And, remember, there was a point when the “voters” were expected to “put the insurrectionist party back in power” with much greater numbers. The GOPers were talking a pickup of 60 seats and so far have only picked up about a half dozen seats.
Your explanations of how passing legislation works are so helpful. Thanks!
I agree, and the thing is the processes are way more complicated than most of us can see happening. I also think half the problem is the ambitions of pols change when they actually get voted into a seat – now they are part of a huge structure & the ambitions within that structure then control how they think & feel – do they want to remain just a tiny cog in there or become somebody that has a high position ? So they spend all their time juggling to be ‘the decider’ in some committee or other, or to be able to be called ‘the Leader of’ such & such. Notice how when they are in trouble they get removed from those positions as a punishment, showing that their focus has nothing to do with passing legislation & is all about their position within that structure !