Current Events > Democrats convinced the Senate Parliamentarian to Expand Reconciliation

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1379200091483951109
Basically, they can "amend" any previously passed reconciliation bill(such as the American Rescue Plan a.k.a. the massive bill they passed recently) as many times as they want, effectively meaning they can use the reconciliation process as much as they want, bypassing the filibuster on budget-related matters. However, there are still a few major issues:

1) This probably undermines any short-term effort to do anything about the filibuster, as Manchin, Sinema, or others may latch onto this as "proof" that the issue is fixed.

2) This doesn't help them pass anything not-budget related, so no protecting voting rights, unions, etc. Indeed, the fact that "budget related" items are essentially fast-tracked may even draw attention away from these critical measures

3) They are still at the mercy of the Parliamentarian re: what can be done via reconciliation

4) They still have to get Manchin and Sinema on-board without pissing off the left too much.

Some people are expecting a flurry of legislation to result, but I'm kind of skeptical that that will be the case. A lot of Senators on both sides of the aisle seem to hate actually doing their jobs, and significant barriers remain to getting stuff done.

The Parliamentarian

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It's kind of gross that an unelected person has this much power, to be honest.

3) They are still at the mercy of the Parliamentarian re: what can be done via reconciliation

No, they aren't. They just choose to be because they don't actually want to force a vote on the minimum wage increase because they don't actually want to do it.

All these gymnastics are so stupid. Get rid of the filibuster.

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Intro2Logic posted...

All these gymnastics are so stupid. Get rid of the filibuster.

they want to but manchin and sinema dont want to do it

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ElatedVenusaur posted...

It's kind of gross that an unelected person has this much power, to be honest.

Also the fact that it has never been a problem until now when Dems have simple majorities in everything.

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fuming posted...

No, they aren't. They just choose to be because they don't actually want to force a vote on the minimum wage increase because they don't actually want to do it.

They are because that fiasco showed that the Dems as a caucus lack the political will to overrule the parliamentarian.