Mitch McConnell is not going to take away the filibuster.

[no_hypocrisy]

Unless he knows the fix is in for November, 2018, he can't be sure that the Republicans won't be the minority in the Senate next year. And the only thing the minority party has as leverage and influence is the filibuster where 60 votes are necessary to pass legislation. And while Democrats understand that without a supermajority to override a presidential veto, they are patient to wait until perhaps a democratic president is elected in 2020, whereby a supermajority is not necessary, only 60 Democrats.

My point: McConnell could take away the filibuster to ram through the rest of Trump's agenda, but once he does that, the maneuver is lost. No give-backs.

[kimbutgar]

1. He already took the filibuster away with his installing gorsuch with a simple majority

The gloves are off and he broke the decorum of senate rules. McConnell will go down as the man who destroyed the gentility of senate.

I hope he is ostracized and burns in hell someday and history shows him a Russian traitor.

[unblock]

3. the filibuster of ordinary legislation remains. for the time being.

that said, yes, mcturtle has indeed removed all pretense of the filibuster being anything other than a partisan tool, and said to hell with senatorial comity on which the legislative filibuster relies.

i don't think anyone really doubts he would similarly go nuclear on any remotely major bill if it were needed for it to become law.

[uponit7771]

13. +1, history will show him as a Russian traitor no don't

[NewJeffCT]

2. If Democrats pull off a miracle and retake the Senate

They should put a halt on all judicial appointments at all levels - unless they get approved by the 5 most liberal members of the senate (currently - Harris, Van Hollen, Markey, Warren and Booker.)

[David__77]

4. I agree with stopping judicial approvals.

I also think doing away with the filibuster would in the long term be a good thing.

[onenote]

5. Where one stands on the filibuster tends to change based on who is in the majority in the Senate

When the Democrats controlled the Senate, there were many voices on DU clamoring for Reid to get rid of the filibuster and much applause when he agreed to get rid of it for judicial nominees (other than SCOTUS) and other executive branch appointments. And when McConnell killed it off for SCOTUS nominations, there was a great deal of complaining here about it (although, to be fair, following on his blocking the Garland nomination there was reason to be royally pissed about the Gorsuch confirmation). And if the Democrats re-take the Senate and the White House, there will again be a faction loudly calling for the elimination of the filibuster for legislation, although some of those loud voices probably would scream bloody murder if McConnell was to eliminate it between now and 2020.

The interesting question for me is whether the Democrats would attempt to reinstate the filibuster for SCOTUS nominees if they get control of the Senate in 2018.

[standingtall]

7. Exactly what republican legislation has

the filibuster stopped? Repukes have passed everything they wanted through reconciliation and what they couldn't pass it was because they couldn't even get 50 votes.

There would be no reason for Democrats to reinstate the filibuster in 2018 if they take the Senate,because they would already have the majority to stop Trumps appointments with.
Democrats should absolutely kill the filibuster once they control the government. Repukes have pretty much already ended the filibuster with their abuse of the reconciliation process.

[onenote]

9. It's hard to say since McConnell won't bring a bill to the floor if it can't get cloture

I imagine the there are number of pieces of legislation that Senate republicans would like to enact that they can't because they wouldn't be able to get cloture.

[standingtall]

6. The filibuster is next to useleless in stopping legislation now

anyway. Sense repukes are doing everything through reconciliation.

[onenote]

10. Not true.

There are plenty of things unrelated to the budget that they would like to do but probably aren't trying because of the need to overcome a Democratic filibuster threat.

[standingtall]

11. They can do their

tax bills,their healthcare bills and probably their infrastructure bill too. The top 3 major peaces of Trump's agenda. Reconciliation can be used 3 times per year. There are rarely more than 3 major peaces of legislation per year anyway. One of only things of value left regarding the filibuster is the 1869 law limiting the number of supreme court justices. When we get back Presidency the Senate and the congress. We should repeal that law and stack the court.

[onenote]

12. using reconciliation for infrastructure is not that easy

https://thinkprogress.org/budget-reconciliation-infrastructure-a5a326b4a22a/