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In addition to placing abortion and voting rights in peril, making routine governing all but impossible, and allowing Republicans to sabotage the economic recovery, the filibuster now threatens the centerpiece of President Biden’s agenda. Will that be enough to convince Senate Democrats to do away with it? Guys, it’s time for some game theory.
- House Democrats will pass legislation to extend funding for the government into December, ahead of a September 30 government-shutdown deadline. Their bill will include disaster-relief funds for hurricane, flood, and fire-ravaged states across the country, and a provision to lift the national debt limit, which Congress must increase, suspend, or repeal by mid-October, before the U.S. begins defaulting on its financial obligations, thus wrecking the economy. No pressure!
- Enter the filibuster: Senate Republicans have said they will refuse to help Democrats increase the debt limit so long as they have the gall to keep advancing Biden’s Build Back Better bill. In other words, they’ll hurt the country unless Dems agree to abandon their agenda. The threat means they will filibuster the government funding bill, risking a government shutdown, unless Democrats strip the debt-limit increase from it. It also means they’ll filibuster a stand-alone debt-limit increase, risking global economic calamity, unless Democrats agree not to tax the rich, not to make prescription drugs cheaper, not to extend Biden’s child tax credits, and so on.
- That leaves Democrats three options that don’t involve testing whether Republicans would actually hurt the country unless they get their way: 1. Jump through a bunch of time-consuming, politically fraught procedural hoops to include a debt-limit increase in the Build Back Better bill, which is filibuster-proof; 2. Cave to Republicans and abandon their agenda; 3. Just do away with the filibuster already and neutralize this tool of GOP sabotage!
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There are some signs that the obvious appeals of option three have started to dawn on Democrats.
- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer threatened (implicitly, but pretty unambiguously) to change the filibuster rules if Republicans abuse them to block voting-rights legislation in the coming days. “It is my intention to hold a vote for the Freedom to Vote Act here on the Senate floor,” he said. “If Republicans are unwilling to move forward, Democrats will have to move on our own.”
- A change of heart can’t come soon enough. Republicans have all but eliminated abortion in Texas, in clear violation of women’s constitutional rights; and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments on December 1 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case challenging Mississippi abortion restrictions that conservatives are likely to use to overturn Roe v. Wade. Congress could codify Roe by passing legislation like the Women’s Health Protection Act. But that bill can’t clear the Senate unless Democrats abolish the filibuster.
Democratic leaders should be clear with their members that Republicans have taken the economy hostage and are demanding Biden’s agenda as ransom. Centrist Democrats would then be on notice that blocking Build Back Better would amount to paying the ransom, and it would underscore the urgent need to get rid of the filibuster. That’s the only way to make sure the hostage survives without rewarding its captors.
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For 544 days, Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian was held hostage in Iran and accused of being an American spy. In a new podcast from Gimlet, Crooked Media, and A24, Jason tells the story of what it took to free him… all while navigating the high-stakes world of nuclear diplomacy. The 544 Days trailer is out now—and you can catch the first three episodes on September 28th. Listen and follow exclusively on Spotify.
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It looks like the Manhattan district attorney will indict more Trump Organization officials in short order. At a pre-trial hearing for Trump’s CFO Allen Weisselberg, who’s already been charged with tax fraud, one of Weisselberg’s attorneys said, "We have strong reason to believe there could be other indictments coming," based on representations by the D.A.’s office that they found evidence in “a co-conspirator’s basement.” That revelation may explain a particularly unhinged statement the disgraced former president released over the weekend, which read in part, “I have had the same fake “bullshit” going on for years with the Witch Hunt by New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance and Attorney General Letitia James, headed by Never Trumper Mark Pomerantz, who now shockingly works for the DA’s office, but is a partner of the Hillary Clinton and DNC’s Democrat Party Never Trumper Law Firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. This is unprecedented! Over three million pages of documents have been examined by them (a record fishing expedition!), Never Trumper lawyers and law firms are used by the DA and AG to ‘Get Trump,’ in their prosecutorial misconduct Witch Hunt, anti-Trump political campaigns are viciously waged by them to get elected—and they have NOTHING!” o_O.
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Justin Trudeau will remain Canadian prime minister, but he and his Liberal Party gained essentially no ground in Tuesday’s election—a warning of sorts to leaders abroad who hope to pre-emptively capitalize on public support for their response to COVID-19. Trudeau called the snap election last month in the hope of securing an outright majority for his party in parliament, which he claimed he needed to overcome conservative obstruction of his pandemic recovery efforts. But though conservatives have slowed Trudeau’s agenda, they lacked the power to actually block them, undermining his case that a national election was necessary in the first place. The result: low turnout, no Liberal majority, and unknown political drag for having called an election the public didn’t think was necessary. His strategy has little bearing on pandemic politics in the U.S., where the timing of elections is inscribed in law, and Republicans seeking office have endorsed policies that have spread COVID-19.
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DEMAND SAFE ACTION TO ABORTION IN TEXAS
Across the country, our right to abortion is under attack. A growing number of states are attempting to ban abortion and there are also more subtle and nefarious restrictions quickly being considered – bills that will push abortion out of reach, even while not banning it outright. Sign the ACLU’s petition and demand safe access to abortion now.
Recently, we sued Texas over its blatantly unconstitutional abortion ban, Senate Bill (S.B.) 8. Over the past few months, politicians in Texas introduced a slew of extreme anti-abortion restrictions. Several of those bills passed, including S.B. 8, which bans abortions at about six weeks – before most people know they are pregnant.
Join the ACLU in this fight today. Sign our petition.
S.B. 8 authorizes any person in the country to sue a person who performed or helped a patient access an abortion in violation of the ban. That means that anyone can try to block abortion access and dismantle abortion support networks by suing abortion providers and anyone who helps a patient access abortion like a family member who drives someone to an appointment or a trusted clergy member who advises a patient.
The ACLU, along with partner organizations, are fighting back in courts and legislatures every day and we will not be stopping any time soon. Are you with us? Add your name today.
Thank you for taking action,
The ACLU Team
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