Congress Against Democracy March 4, 2010
Posted by Conrad Hubbard in : The Chip , 2 commentsI was watching CNN tonight, and they had two Congressional members, one Democratic and one Republican, talking about the current healthcare issue and what the Senate should do. Republican Representative Michele Bachmann stated that having the Senate settle issues of law by majority vote was wrong. She said that the Senate should require a 60%-Yes vote for anything to pass. Hm? While I definitely believe that our Constitution has strong (usually judicial) provisions designed to protect minorities against immoral majorities, it also provides for a democratic-republic form of government. The same so-called “reconciliation” tactic was used to pass the Bush-era taxcuts for the wealthy, so really the Representative is talking out of both sides of her mouth anyway. Regardless, to me it is silly that this has to have some special term like Reconciliation. Why does it require weird obscure rules for a simple majority to win the vote? Why should it take 60-40 votes for a bill to pass in the Senate? Why are so many Republicans against the basic idea of democracy?