Ezra Klein yesterday posted this video of Republican New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg from 2005 talking about budget reconciliation:
Klein goes on:
The idea “that it is outside the rules to proceed within the rules,” Gregg laughs, “is a very unique view on the rules.” He’s right! Sadly, he has now adopted that unique view on the rules, complaining that reconciliation is “running over the minority, putting them in cement and throwing them in the Chicago River.”
Obviously, Democrats were similarly hypocritical at the time, arguing that reconciliation was a terrible abuse of power. And so it goes: People start from their preferred outcome and then make up principles that support it. But at all times, the most convincing argument is the one Gregg uses above: Elections generally work on the principle that if you have 51 percent of the vote, you win. That’s how we ratified the Constitution at the Massachusetts Convention. That’s how we elected Scott Brown and Ronald Reagan. That’s how the House of Representatives passes legislation. And it’s how the Senate should work.
I’m still not sure how I feel about jettisoning the filibuster. When legislation you support is being strangled by one or more senators, you dislike the filibuster; but when legislation you oppose is on the verge of passage, you want every power you can get to stop that legislation. That said, with cloture votes doubled in this Congress, a supermajority is needed to pass far too many pieces of legislation. Perhaps the filibuster needs to be vetoed.
(Side note: If the senate actually takes up debate on amending the rules to eliminate the filibuster, will some senator filibuster the filibuster debate?)