Today’s Big Number: 290

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Hardball’s big number today was 290 – the number of House bills backlogged awaiting action by the Senate. Why so many? Every bill moving to the Senate after House passage is subject to filibuster by the Senate Republican minority. Unless suited to Republicans’ tastes, the minority party in the Senate threatens to filibuster its passage – effectively wielding a veto over all Senate legislation. Public records show that no minority party in history has used the threat of a filibuster to an extent even close to that of the current minority party.

Why is that? The reason has been proudly declared numerous times: To stop this president no matter what it takes – in the name of the country, of course. This translates into voting as a bloc against administration and Democratic-sponsored legislation, subjecting it to filibuster requiring a super-majority no longer held by the Democrats to pass the legislation. The United States Senate, and thus the entire legislative branch of our federal government is being held hostage by the minority Republicans exercising a legislative veto to bring the Senate’s business to a grinding halt.

The Republican legislative veto does not serve the will of the American people. It runs contrary to the will of the American people who elected a Democratic president and Congress. Hence the “we won” argument against Republican obstructionism. The American people elected a Democratic president and Congress to lead the nation. America’s choice for leadership was not a slithering cadre of 41 Republican senators.

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