LifeZette: Republicans Ready to Play Hardball
By Jim Stinson
Not every Republican or conservative likes the idea of getting rid of the Senate filibuster, which allows just one senator to keep a bill or Supreme Court nominee from getting a vote on the Senate floor.
The filibuster prevented an unbridled Obama agenda when Democrats had control of the White House and Congress from 2009 to 2011, some say.
“Republicans should beware,” said Bradley A. Smith, chairman of the Center for Competitive Politics. “Imagine Obama unchecked by filibuster. Republicans did a lot to stop his agenda, even if many don’t realize that.”
Smith thinks much can be done without nuking the filibuster completely.
Smith expects Republicans will push Democrats’ anti-filibuster rule to include Supreme Court nominees. And for Obamacare, they’ll take care of repeal through “budget reconciliation.” That prevents a filibuster.
“Much of what Obama did was done through executive orders and regulatory ‘policy statements,’ precisely because GOP blocked it in Congress,” said Smith. “So that stuff can be easily undone without Congress.”
