This is good all around. The Democrats would have regretted this discision when the Republicans get the majority back someday. I think 60 votes for everything is a good thing quite frankly regardless of politics.
Just so we don’t get delusional, nor complacent about our current GOP reps in congress, I received this in my email this morning:
Dear Mr. XXXX,
Thank you for contacting me regarding the recent outbreak of shootings around the country.
Nothing I write in a letter feels like a satisfactory response to such an awful series of events. My heart goes out to the families of the victims of these unfathomable crimes. I simply do not have the words to encapsulate the anguish and loss they have experienced. As a wife, daughter and sister, my prayers are with the families who must now grapple with the absence of their own loved ones and family members.
Tragedies such as these raise many issues with regard to public policy and public welfare. As an elected official, I took an oath to uphold our Constitution, including the Second Amendment contained within it that guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. While I believe that law-abiding citizens should have this right protected, I also believe we should review our current legal safeguards and restrictions to ensure that they are being adequately enforced. I also believe we need to examine our laws to make sure that we are doing what we can to keep criminals and the mentally unstable from obtaining these weapons in the first place.
However, we must do more than just examine our firearms laws. Our efforts to address these tragedies must include a thorough reevaluation of our nation’s system for treating mental illness. Unfortunately, too often mental illness goes undiagnosed and untreated. We must focus on increasing public awareness of the symptoms of mental illness and on improving access to mental health services, with a goal of identifying and treating mental illness earlier on in those it affects. It is my hope that from these tragedies will emerge action that promotes better mental health diagnosis and treatment in the U.S.
I ask that you please keep the families of the victims in your thoughts and prayers.
Thank you again for contacting me on this important issue. I invite you to visit my website at www.JaimeHB.house.gov for additional information or to sign up to be kept up to date on these issues. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Jaime Herrera Beutler
Member of Congress
http://www.rollcall.com/news/filibuster_deal_reached_in_senate-221072-1.html?pos=hln
Unless something more comes out this sounds excellent.
The important thing is to make Reid’s crazy-liberal bloc unhappy.
“Senators must be present to filibuster”
How about eliminating the unanimous consent. How about “senators must be present to vote”! That would be real senate reform.
This can be fixed of course any time, if any one senator had the balls to sit on the floor and deny any unanimous consent: “objection. Call the roll.”
And to those who say this would slow down the senate...nonsense. It would actually speed it up. Watch Cspan some time and see the innumerable roll call votes for no reason but delay. Those votes could be used on (gasp) actual legislation.
If mcconnell thought the deal was done, just wait until the lyin’ reid doesn’t get his way. He’ll use that nuclear option in a NY minute.