Pundit,
Welcome to the potential world of one party politics. The Liberal Supermajority an article that just appeared on WSJ online, makes a point about the elimination of the filibuster and what you can expect from a hyper-liberal Congress. Let’s look at worse case scenario, the Liberals could pick up anywhere form 12-24 seats in the House, which they already control 235-199. In the Senate, they have the potential at gaining five seats and presently have a 51-49 advantage over the Republicans.
As far as the Senate is concerned, you have to have a 3/5ths majority vote to invoke cloture, or ending the filibuster. If the Liberals obtain the seats they expect to win the numbers in the Senate shift to 56-44. Four votes short, as far as the Democrats are concerned, to be able to invoke cloture at a whim.
Nevertheless, how difficult it to get the necessary four additional votes? Not very. You can dangle an earmark-laden carrot in front of most of the borderline Republicans and they will bite. Therefore, with back door dealings in mind, invoking cloture probably will not be that difficult for the Liberals.
What does this actually mean though? As pointed out in the WSJ article we can probably expect, massive regulation on business, green agendas, higher taxes, free speech infringements, etc. Along with a President Obama, more than happy to sign off on any piece of legislation that passes through Congress.
The only potential possibility I see is for the Republicans to caucus with the Blue Dog Democrats in the House. Even then, only about 47 Representatives who belong to this coalition and they are not even a sure thing.
Now keep in mind this is a worse case scenario and this is based on polling data not reality. However, if this does happen it will be comparable to the 1933 New Deal Democratic revolution minus the fiscal conservatism. With New Deal legislation, it took almost 66 years of political TNT to get rid of it. Guess the Repubs in Congress better start stocking up.
As far as the Senate is concerned, you have to have a 3/5ths majority vote to invoke cloture, or ending the filibuster. If the Liberals obtain the seats they expect to win the numbers in the Senate shift to 56-44. Four votes short, as far as the Democrats are concerned, to be able to invoke cloture at a whim.
Nevertheless, how difficult it to get the necessary four additional votes? Not very. You can dangle an earmark-laden carrot in front of most of the borderline Republicans and they will bite. Therefore, with back door dealings in mind, invoking cloture probably will not be that difficult for the Liberals.
What does this actually mean though? As pointed out in the WSJ article we can probably expect, massive regulation on business, green agendas, higher taxes, free speech infringements, etc. Along with a President Obama, more than happy to sign off on any piece of legislation that passes through Congress.
The only potential possibility I see is for the Republicans to caucus with the Blue Dog Democrats in the House. Even then, only about 47 Representatives who belong to this coalition and they are not even a sure thing.
Now keep in mind this is a worse case scenario and this is based on polling data not reality. However, if this does happen it will be comparable to the 1933 New Deal Democratic revolution minus the fiscal conservatism. With New Deal legislation, it took almost 66 years of political TNT to get rid of it. Guess the Repubs in Congress better start stocking up.
-OmegaPundit
“The last word on everything.”
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