Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said Tuesday he welcomes a last-minute deal struck by Senate leaders to avert a major showdown over the institution’s rules.
But while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called the deal a “step forward,” Vermont’s junior senator said it was not enough to remedy the ills of “a seriously dysfunctional Senate.”
The deal clears the way for confirmation votes on five of President Obama’s long-stalled nominees, including the top jobs at the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Labor and the Consumer Financial Protection Board. In exchange, President Obama will withdraw two controversial nominees to the National Labor Relations Board and replace them with two others, who are expected to receive speedy confirmation.
As late as Monday night, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had threatened to change the Senate’s rules to ban filibusters against presidential nominations, unless Republicans agreed to confirm Obama’s nominees.
Speaking on the Senate floor after the deal was struck, Sanders said the minority party’s ability to scuttle legislation supported by a majority was “a perversion of democracy.”
“While this agreement addresses the immediate need for the president of the United States to have his cabinet and his senior staff confirmed, this agreement today only addresses one symptom of a seriously dysfunctional senate,” he said. “The issue that must now be addressed is how we create a procedure and a set of rules in the United States Senate which allows us to respond to the needs of the American people in a timely and effective way — something which virtually everybody agrees is not happening now.”
Here’s a video of Sanders’ speech:
Sanders is scheduled to discuss his reaction to the deal in greater detail Wednesday on Vermont Public Radio’s “Vermont Edition.”
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The Senate makes their own rules, they allow the minority to have certain perks because the positions change over time and nobody wants to be shut out when it is their time to be in the minority. Of course the senators are squabbling and bitching-this is democracy. If you want efficiency try facism.
Fixing Congress is easy … get a new president. Obama rammed Obamacare through the House and Senate. This was done strictly on Party lines and without any bipartisan support. That act created the situation we now have, by not working with Republicans he effectively alienated them, and in return they are doing their best to alienate Obama and the rest of the left. You reap what you sow, and nothing will change until Obama, Reid and Pelosi are gone. The hatred runs far too deep at this point. And as we can see ObamaCare is likely to ruin this country one way or the other, either through bankruptcy or belief by the people that we no longer have a functioning government, and thus it is upon the people to dissolve it and start anew.
Congress was working pre-January 2009, is broken now because of partisanship, and the only way to fix it is it to get rid of the liberals?! Thanks for the laugh, Jamie! For those playing along at home, Jamie has just described the very partisan “We Can Work It Out” platform:
“Life is very short, and there’s no time
for fussing and fighting, my friend.
I have always thought that it’s a crime
so I will ask you once again:
Try to see it my way …”
I apologize, I didn’t express my solution clearly. Get rid of Obama, Get rid of Reid, Get rid of Pelosi, and Get rid of Boehner. See, get rid of the leaders whom have led the partisan divide that has plagued Congress.
The rest of the left and right can stay. Unless you want to get rid of Leahy too…
Sure, the partisan gridlock is perhaps worse now than it’s ever been, but, jcarter1, Congress was broken long before you can blame Obama, Reid, and Pelosi for. You can’t blame them for the current partisan gridlock. It’s all Boehner and McConnell for refusing to allow the President to do anything. For using a Congressional strategy to, as they openly admitted, destroy this Presidency and make Obama a one term President. And how about a little perspective? Howabout blaming fat, lying loopy Gingrich for the scorched earth “Just Say No” strategy to the Clinton Administration beginning with his Speakership in 1994? Howabout blaming Congressional Republicans for the shocking, Stalinesque show trial in 1998 known as the Clinton impeachment? There’s always been partisanship in Washington, but the Republican Insane Right has taken it to a new, unpatriotic low.
And how will a new crop of “leaders” make the same old rank & file come together and actually pass bills?
As long as Republicans — even if they’re moderate at heart — have to cater to Tea Party nutjobs in order to survive primary elections, they absolutely, positively can’t cooperate with Democrats on anything.
Let’s stop gerrymandering congressional districts into safe “Republican” and “Democratic” seats that force the candidates in those districts to cater to the extremist elements in the parties that control those districts.
And let’s get all money out of elections.