The Senate is broken

Reader comment on: Nevada's Governor on the Health Overhaul

Submitted by benjamin (United States), Jan 2, 2010 21:05

The problem with this reading on the issue is that even if people do blame the Democrats, it is virtually a guarantee that the Republicans will at no point in the near (or distant?) future have the 60 votes necessary to break a Democratic fillibuster to repeal Obamacare. The Senate is undemocratic and should be abolished. Clearly that won't happen, but reforming the fillibuster like Harkin proposes would allow the governing party to actually assert its will. The Democrats could then have passed a strong public option - if it works, great, if it doesn't and Republicans retake the Senate they could repeal it, which is what a democracy should do. Instead, because of the tyranny of the filibuster, neither party will be able to exert its will, resulting in paralysis.

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