Senator Harry Reid says Democrats should move to curtail the filibuster if they win the White House and Senate in November only to run up against persistent use of the tactic by Republicans.
“Unless after this election there is a dramatic change to go back to the way it used to be, the Senate will have to evolve as it has in the past,” Mr. Reid told me, referring to a former tradition of rarely mounting filibusters. “But it will evolve with a majority vote determining stuff. It is going to happen....The country can’t be run this way, where nothing gets done.”
Elimination of the filibuster on legislation or Supreme Court nominees — who were not included in the 2013 changes — would represent an earth-shattering transformation in the culture of the Senate. Any attempt to abolish or significantly scale it back would without doubt provoke a furious partisan fight.
Under a hypothetical new Democratic majority, the fate of the filibuster would fall to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, who is in line to replace Mr. Reid as the Democratic leader. Mr. Schumer’s aides said he would not have a response to Mr. Reid’s comments. Mr. Schumer did support Mr. Reid in abolishing the 60-vote supermajority threshold on moving ahead with most judicial branch nominations….
IMHO a Democratic Senate and President are very likely, and we have a fighting chance to win back the House in a wave election sufficent to overwhelm the gerrymander. That would require about an 8 point national margin in House races.
With control of both Houses of Congress, it would be possible to legislate and enact the huge backlog of popular and necessary legislation endorsed by the Democratic Platform agreed to by Bernie and Hillary :
=> paid family leave,
=> public option and lower Medicare age for health care,
=> massive job creating investments in infrastructure, including urgent major investments in clean energy and clean water,
=> affordable higher education,
=> raising the minimum wage,
=> comprehensive immigration reform, etc
Such a record of accomplishment would make it possible to raise turnout in 2018 and win the midterm election. Without control of the House and a working majority in the Senate, we will face four more years of gridlock. Even without the House, considering the scorched earth obstructionism the GOP has shown since Obama was elected, it will be necessary to end the filibuster on all Presidential appointments.
The National Committee for and Effective Congress, founded by Eleanor Roosevelt, has been working for liberal and progressive House candidates ever since. Their stratified list of potentially winnable House races is here.