Name: Vice President Kamala Harris Breaks COVID Relief Bill Tie, Reveals Truth About Senate
Brand: esquire.com
SKU: esquire-com-327
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Vice President Kamala Harris Breaks COVID Relief Bill Tie, Reveals Truth About Senate

preview

Watching the proceedings this fine Thursday as the United States Senate prepared to take up the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, a fairly important feature of the national legislature's upper chamber was made plain. Republicans declared their lockstep opposition to even opening debate on , and it looked like the vote would shake out 50-50. In fact, it did. And so Vice President Kamala Harris arrived and broke the tie, advancing the bill to be considered by the Senate. This was possible because, as outlined in Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution of the United States, Harris has a particular role here:The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.That is to say, the vice president can serve as a tiebreaker. Founders Fetishism is out of style these days, and there's a lot to dislike about the Senate, but the people who love to cite The Founders usually also seem to like the Senate. And surely the takeaway from this constitutional provision is that the Founders envisioned the Senate as a body that would operate on the principle of simple majority rule. What is the alternative? That they thought a simple majority would be required for some things, but for other things there would be a magic 60-vote threshold they said nothing about? Get real. The filibuster and the constraints it has placed on legislating are completely made-up. , but the Harris tiebreak today should really be all you need. Why would they specifically create a pass-by-one-vote scenario if this would, in the logic of the filibuster's defenders, somehow destroy the integrity of the Senate?This content is imported from twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.VP Kamala Harris breaks the tie, meaning Senate debate on the Covid stimulus bill can begin — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) On the other side of things, the need to shitcan the filibuster was also once again reinforced today. The basis for this is that the Republicans once again demonstrated they will not behave like adults in any way, and not just because their in-house TV channel is on . As aforementioned, they refused to even countenance debate on a highly popular bill in the COVID relief package. Senator Ron Johnson before it can be considered, just to be a dick. They are blocking Merrick Garland's ascension to the minor post of Attorney General of the United States, just to be a dick. But Joe Manchin thinks these folks are going to circle up and come up with an immigration reform bill? Kyrsten Sinema thinks the filibuster will continue fostering bipartisan cooperation, just as it has next-to-never over the last decade? Will Marco Rubio take a break from to engage in some good-faith election reform? Again, get real. Get rid of—or at least substantively reform—the filibuster and pass laws with the majority you have. If you start passing stuff, it's far more likely Republicans will come to the table and try to get their ideas into the mix. As it stands, they have no incentive whatsoever to do anything but .Jack Holmes is a senior staff writer at Esquire, where he covers politics and sports. He also hosts Useful Context, a video series.This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.&nbsp;Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below

Watching the proceedings this fine Thursday as the United States Senate prepared to take up the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, a fairly important feature of the national legislature's upper chamber was made plain. Republicans declared their lockstep opposition to even opening debate on , and it looked like the vote would shake out 50-50. In fact, it did. And so Vice President Kamala Harris arrived and broke the tie, advancing the bill to be considered by the Senate. This was possible because, as outlined in Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution of the United States, Harris has a...

Vice President Kamala Harris Breaks COVID Relief Bill Tie, Reveals Truth About Senate

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS