The Republicans and the Media, with Harry Reid giving a large assist, have just about talked everyone into believing that you need 60 votes to pass anything in the Senate. In fact, it only takes 51. You can look it up. That’s why the Constitution lets the Vice President break ties.
There are ways to break filibusters, one of which is to pass budget items through the reconciliation process, which can’t be filibustered. The Democrats have run scared at the thought of using that process to pass Health Care reform (President Snowe might be upset) but apparently they’re ready to use it to pass another piece of legislation that is not so desperately needed, but is more of a no-brainer.
Education has kind of taken a back seat to some of the other facets of the Obama agenda, but on one measure they have sought to make tangible progress – the utterly common-sense notion of ending the subsidization of the private student lending market, and using the savings of providing student loans directly to increase Pell Grants and other awards to make college more affordable. This would redirect $87 billion dollars over 10 years from the pockets of bankers to students. It’s about as simple and clear a position as you can take.
So naturally, it faces resistance from Republicans and ConservaDems who have private student loan operations in their states. Back in April, the Senate, preparing for this resistance, authored budget reconciliation rules to move this education measure forward with 50 votes instead of having to break a filibuster with 60. And now, Tom Harkin is planning on doing just that.
Isn’t it interesting that these types of businesses tend to gravitate toward small time states that have Senators with big time power? This is capitalism in the 21st century. The system as it stands now is nothing more nor less than a tax on all of us, the revenue from that tax being transferred to private parties who take no risk and are paid scores of times more than it would cost the government to do the same thing that they do. A tax, by the way, that Republicans seem to love. So long as our hard earned money is going to a large corporation, be it student loan companies or Halliburton, they don’t seem to mind government spending. But when it comes to any program that might actually benefit the non-upper classes, then it’s a top priority to keep your money in your pocket; even if your money, added to other’s money collectively, would make your life a lot better. In the Republicans book the sole function of taxes is to transfer money from the have-nots to the haves.
The use of the reconciliation process in this context should be non-controversial, since it is perfectly consistent with past practice, but expect to hear from Republicans and the media that this is unprecedented. Not that an unprecedented use of the process would be that bad. The Republicans and Democrats both have conclusively proven that the filibuster only works for the Republicans, so it only make sense for the Democrats to destroy it by parliamentary chicanery, if that’s what it takes.
Post a Comment