The Senate may not have been intended to operate efficiently, but it was intended to operate, Mr. Leader. There is nothing constitutional about the filibuster. In fact, the rule is something of a historical accident* which
US Person advocates changing
{"filibuster"}. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he would try to use the Senate's somewhat quirky rules to require actual debate to filibuster as once was the norm when the new Congress convenes in January. At it's opening the Senate can set new rules by majority vote. Reid's proposal does not go far enough, but it is an improvement over the current system where just one Senator in secret can hold up legislation supported by a majority. Obstructing the nation's business should require a Senator to at least expend hot air. As it stands, very little is getting accomplished besides dubious political theatre as the nation lurches from one crisis, self-created or
not, to the next. As we all know there are
life-threatening problems awaiting action while the nation's highest legislative chamber is gridlocked beyond compromise.
Exhibit A is global warming. The deniers are running out of room as yet another scientific study has concluded the effects of anthropomorphic warming of the planet are visible for willing to look. The major study with forty-seven authors using multi-displinary methods published in the journal
Science (Shepard et al, 2012) concludes melting ice sheets at the poles have contributed about 20% of observed sea level rising. Sea levels are also rising because warmer water expands. All major ice sheets except East Antarctica are losing mass in a process that began sometime at the turn of this century. The loss of ice in Greenland has jumped five-fold in just the last two decades. But the delegates at the Doha,
Qatar climate summit sip sweet tea in air conditioned comfort and check their stock portfolios. Global carbon dioxide from industrial sources hit a new record high this year. According to the analysis in
Nature Climate Changes CO₂ leaped 3% in 2011 largely due to China's increasing emissions of 10% in 2011. China now spews out the most planet heating gases in the world.
India, as expected, is also increased emissions by 7.5% in 2011. as it's formerly agrarian economy continues to industrialize. Both Asian nations have huge populations, so the per capita amount of emissions remain below those of the United States and Europe. But both countries intend to rely on coal as a major source of power since they have
proposed 818 new coal-fired generating plants. Commendably, the United States and Europe both reduced emissions last year due to economic recession and a slow switch to alternative fuels and less polluting natural gas. The reductions
will not be enough to offset the massive developing Asian economies.
This impasse puts the world on track to a
4-6 degree celsius increase in average temperatures. Without drastic reductions by 2020 the window of opportunity to limit temperature increase to 2 degrees will be gone, and the world will experience
dangerous climate change.
*Aaron Burr argued the Senate's rule "to move the previous question" was redundant and should be eliminated. In 1806 the Senate agreed with him, but was left without a mechanism to end debate from which the potential for filibuster sprang full grown able to wreak havoc. The first use of filibuster occurred in 1837 when the upper chamber considered the charter for the Second Bank of the United States. Senator Henry Clay attempted to end debate on the measure but was threatened with a filibuster, so he backed down. Segregationist Senator Strom "Sperm" Thurmond set the dubious filibuster record by speaking for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Nevertheless, the bill passed. See, Congressional Research Service, Filibusters and Cloture in the Senate.(2012)
