What I Don’t Understand About Filibustering

The Republicans may not be scared of the Democrats, but aren’t they scared of the voters?

Embedded in the tumult over healthcare insurance reform is the promise if Democrats try to bring a bill to the Senate floor without 60 votes Republicans will filibuster!

Ooooh–filibuster. It’s the boogie man of Roberts Rules. Anyway, we’re not exactly seeing an insta-Congress now.

OK–I’m sort of slow on this. I’m sure I’m missing something. The last filibuster I remember seeing was delivered by Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Good scene. He collapsed convincingly.

I assume the modern version would be a tag-team filibuster with individual Republicans and conservative Democrats taking turns yapping.

Again, I’m sort of slow on this, but why not? Seriously. Why wouldn’t the Democrats want the Republicans to do this?

The latest polls show the vast majority of Americans want insurance reform including a public option. The Republicans may not be scared of the Democrats, but aren’t they scared of the voters? Do they really want to throw a monkey wrench in the works while America stares at them?

A filibuster would open them to all sorts of accusations they currently avoid. It would make them seem smarmy in a much more visible way.

Let them filibuster!

Again, I know I’m missing something here… or maybe everyone else is too damned scared for their own good.

2 thoughts on “What I Don’t Understand About Filibustering”

  1. Cite a source on the vast majority of americans want insurance reform with a public option please. Aren’t the Democrats the ones stalling this? WE don’t even know what they want us to agree to yet, they, including Obama won’t tell us the details. The VAST majority of people I know have health insurance and are happy with it.

  2. According to a New York Times poll dated 9/25/09, when asked the question “Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government-administered health insurance plan like Medicare that would compete with private health insurance plans?”, 65% answered yes, 26% answered no, and 9% had no opinion.

    The New England Journal of Medicine took a poll among physicians regarding the public option: 63% supported it and 27% opposed it. The other 10%? They wanted single-payer.

    The sad truth of the matter is that many people who are now satisfied with their health insurance have never put it to a real test, and when faced with a serious illness may find themselves confronting refusal of claims, coverage capitation, discontinuance of their policy for failure to report pre-existing conditions, and tons of other nonsense that happens all to often. Look up the statistics on the number of people with health insurance who go broke, lose their homes, etc. when someone in their family becomes seriously ill.

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