Filibuster - An Old Crappy Abuse of Power

Term of the Day:

Filibuster

Informal term for any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions.

Plain English: To be a jackass politician by delaying votes on new laws for no good reason.


Why Does this Matter?

• It makes government move inefficient than it already is.
• It is an effective stall tactic that wastes tax payer dollars. I don't know about you but I pay taxes and would like to see some real work done.
• It does not add to the discussion.

Learn this term well because you'll probably see it a lot these next few years with the House going to the Republicans, the Senate almost even and a Democratic White House. Both parties have a history of using this dirty trick, so no one is innocent. The only way you can break a filibuster is with a 60 Senate member vote for a cloture.

Cloture

The only procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and thereby overcome a filibuster. Under the cloture rule (Rule XXII), the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours, but only by vote of three-fifths of the full Senate, normally 60 votes.

Plain English: 60 Senators are pissed enough to work together to end the bullshit-stall-tactic of a filibuster. The jerks still get another 30 hours to delay if they want.