Ending the Era of Minority Rule

Obstructionism has been the modus operandi by Republicans in Congress to oppose President Obama with special emphasis in the Senate. Through the use of the filibuster, the Senate Republican minority has been able to block presidential appointments or sway them to less likely candidates, block the appointment of Federal Judges to the bench, and obstruct the enforcement of laws by blocking appointments to the NLRB . To bring about the end of a filibuster through cloture, 60 of the 100 senators had to vote in favor of it under the current Senate rules.

With the appointment of Mitch McConnell as the Republican Senate minority leader, the number of cloture motions filed to break a filibuster has increased with http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/cloture_motions/clotureCounts.htm” target=”_blank”>3 of every 10 clotures filed having occurred since McConnell’s appointment. The numbers are up drastically since Obama became president and McConnell became the Senate Minority leader (redundant alert). Maybe McConnell does not like the president as the current practice is certainly not reminiscence of past practices.

Senator Henry Reid decided to employ the nuclear option:

“a Senate procedure that will allow a majority of the Senate to effectively change its rules to limit widespread obstructionism by the minority. As the trigger for this reform involves seven executive branch nominees being held up by Senate Republican filibusters, the likely consequence of this round of rules reform will be to eliminate the minority’s ability to filibuster nominees.”

The president will now be able to appoint to the judiciary and to legislative positions with just a majority rule vote. If it appears to be unfair, more nominations by President Obama since he took office have been blocked than all other presidents combined.