Democrats Flirt with Destroying Another Senate Guardrail

Republicans, having lost the majority in the Senate appear to be worried that Democrats will act like Republicans by bending the rules to suit their progressive purposes.  Of course, there were no such worries when Republicans bent the rules to appoint Supreme Court Justices of lower taxes for corporations or their wealthier campaign contributors.  As Majority Leader Chuck Schumer toys with the idea of blowing up the legislative filibuster as well, he is potentially poised to first unravel another important — if lesser-known — Senate rule in pursuit of an all-encompassing COVID-relief bill under the terms of “budget reconciliation.”  We’re talking about the Byrd Rule (named after the late Senator Robert Byrd), which limits the ability of the majority to stuff extraneous legislative goodies into budget-related proposals and still pass them with a simple-majority vote under that process. Senator Byrd saw the danger of using reconciliation, which limits amendments and debate, to pursue broader, non-budgetary legislation outside regular order. As a defender of the right of all senators to debate and amend legislation, he fastened these restrictions onto the reconciliation process.  Once upon a time, the U.S. Senate was called the world’s greatest deliberative body. As envisioned by Thomas Jefferson, there were rules that protected the minority and allowed for thorough debate. Once upon a time there was no filibuster and a fifty-one vote was all that was required to pass legislation in the Senate.  But, faced with the possibility of school integration the Southern Minority created the concept of the filibuster to prevent the majority from passing legislation.  Originally, rarely used, the filibuster is abused, in particularly when Democrats are in the majority and needs to be changed in the least and eliminated in the most.  Sadly, it appears this current Senate majority cares little for the precedents that earned the U.S. Senate that title. Equally sadly is the simple fact that Republicans have become experts in abusing the filibuster to prevent a Democratic majority from governing but have no problem abusing the rules when it is to the Republican advantage.