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Pros And Cons Of Filibuster In Modern Congress

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Modern congress and its members seem largely concerned and focused on partisan advancements. Though there are many reasons as to why the enormous division in congress is as it is, there is one factor that draws the most attention. Filibuster an action that is used by most congressmen and women to delay the passage of laws, has increasingly over the course of time become a negative action rather than positive. The use of mostly long speeches as ways to prohibit and hinder bills or laws is now being used by many senators to advance personal and party goals thus, it is crucial that the ban of filibuster must be considered and replaced with the simple majority rule. First and foremost, some reasons as to why filibuster should be exempted from …show more content…

When carefully analyzed, the history behind filibuster started off with good intentions. Filibuster in the past made sure that not just any law proposed was passed as well as the fact that it somehow helped parties along the way. The main issue now is that, Filibuster instead of being used correctly and in the right moments, now has one main use which is furthering party agenda or personal goals. In recent years, there has been many cases where filibuster has been used when it shouldn't have. Cases including but not limited to the paycheck fairness Act which would have ensured the provision of equal pay regardless of gender, the gun control bill that would have required

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Unit Four - State Hearing Question 2 The filibuster is essential to good governance in the United States. By nature, this arrangement works to protect minority rights, encourage compromise, and prevent impromptu legislation. Although indispensable, the filibuster must be reevaluated and modified to prevent impotence in the Senate.

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Lee H. Hamilton, a former congressman in the House of Representatives, wrote, The Case for Congress, to share some of the criticisms he has heard over the years and to explain the effects of such opinions. Hamilton speaks of three main criticisms: “Congress is run by lobbyists and special interests”, “Congress almost seems to promote total gridlock”, and “There’s too much money in Politics” (Hamilton 2004). For each of these criticisms, Hamilton explains these thoughts and his opinion on the matter. The strongest point of Hamilton’s argument was in defending the lobbyists in Congress. Hamilton (2004) said the public opinion of lobbyists is that “Congress is manipulated by powerful wheel-dealers who put pressure on legislators and buy votes through extensive campaigns and other favors” (p. 83).

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The legislation was considered by several committees in the house, and in both chambers, compromises arrived at through informal processes altered the bills after the committees reported their legislation… In the Senate, the real possibility of a filibuster shaped the process, making it necessary of Majority leader Mitchell to build through negotiations an oversized coalition. (Sinclair 3). This evolution in the legislative process could be a result of congress manipulating the rules to achieve goals in informal ways.

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Perhaps one of the best arguments for lack of speed in Congress was laid out by a paper in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1963, when the editors wrote, “The Slowness of Congress, its traditional process, its respect for minority sentiment, all these will be enjoyed at one time or another by every minority, and all of us belong to the minority at times. ” Lack of speed is a check on majority by the minority. In turn each political party will be in power or out of power and thus slowness has the virtue of stopping the majority from riding roughshod over any minority group. Even though there are at least two major benefits, there are equal drawbacks of having a slow moving

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A filibuster is a tactic in the legislative process sometimes used in the US Senate by opponents of a bill to block its passage. In the Senate use their unique right to unlimited debate as a way to prevent or delay the Senate from ever voting on a bill. Senator’s work together can practically debate forever, tying up the legislative agenda until the proponents of a bill finally give up their battle. Filibusters are not allowed in the House of Representatives because House rules limit the time allowed for debate on bills. In 2013 because of Democratic frustration about filibusters of judicial and executive branch nominees the filibuster’s rules changed.

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1. Personally, I believe the constitution was the better document because it had more power. The articles of confederation gave the states more power than congress had, and because of this states either did was it said or did not. Because of the states having more power over Congress, the states did not focus on the needs of the whole country but only cared for their own state and what is best for their people. The constitution is better because it was easier to make changes and amendments to it.

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So what is the solution to solving the issues and dangers of the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC concerning campaign finance? It is clear that the best way to overcome the pitfalls of Citizens United is to create a new, stronger, and better developed piece of legislation to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision. The new legislation would need to highlight the strongest aspects of the BCRA as well as bring in new ideas to successfully limit campaign finance. To start, this new legislation should take aspects from the BCRA and strengthen those to avoid loopholes. The first aspect should be the ban on the solicitation and exchange of soft money by political parties.

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Although some believe filibusters in the Senate can be a manipulative interpretation of the constitution, and a waste of time, they are in fact necessary to American democracy to protect the interests of American people and to open the discussion for negotiation on legislation. Filibusters in the senate protect the rights of American citizen’s by allowing a faction of people to shut down legislation they believe to be deficient. On September 24th, 2013 Ted Cruz started the second longest filibuster in American history in efforts to sway the Senate to repeal funding for The Affordable Care Act. Cruz felt as though “it is not working” and “it would be a huge burden” to the working class (Ted Cruz 2013). His filibuster was successful in shutting

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During a filibuster, Senate rules allow senators to talk about any subject they choose, which means people can actually just waste as much time as they want, slowing or even worse, halting actual debate. " ...in 1935, Senator Huey Long (D, Louisiana) had recited a salad dressing recipe and explained how to fry oysters during a 15-hour-long filibuster attempt to require Senate confirmation for a new federal agency established amid the Great Depression" ("The Filibuster"). This shows the filibuster's ridiculous mockery of the US Senate and eliminating debate over actual issues. The Senate, representing the people of the United States, is supposed to be having purposeful debate discussing the topic at hand, not going off-topic and derailing law-passing when days and weeks really do matter. Today's filibuster halts any debate, causing laws to be stuck for weeks without discussion.

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Mystie Robinson American Government Term Limits of Congress The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature of the United States of America’s federal government. Congress has two parts: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Members of Congress can spend many years in office. They don’t have term limits.

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A Democratic senator from Delaware wishes to introduce a piece of legislation that would ban the sale of all handguns. There are several obstacles that this bill will face throughout the whole process of getting the bill passed. Some of these obstacles include being from the state of Delaware, being a Democrat in a Republican majority congress, second Amendment rights, and gun lobbyists such as the National Rifle Association, or NRA. One of the obstacles this senator would face is the fact that he is from Delaware. Delaware is such a small state that not many people really care about.

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But because the minority loves this advantage they had, they would use filibuster to stop the passing of a filibuster ban bill. But when reelections happens and the minority now becomes the majority they decide to ban filibuster and the then majority not minority use the same method to stop them instead. This becomes a forever ending cycle of trying to use filibuster for their advantage but trying not to give opposing side the power to filibuster (Binder,

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Many people believe in term limits. “In the 1900’s, public opinion polls showed that 70 to 80 percent of the American public supported the idea of term limits for Congress” (Feinberg, 1996). Term limits in Congress can be argued that the politicians who have been in office for decades could have be out of new ideas or have become comfortable in their position. It seems only fair that if others involved in politics, such as the president, can only serve for a number of terms than Congress should be faced with the same. “Term limits encourage politicians to work quickly and efficiently to pass good legislation that immediately benefits the electorate, and to prevent the partisan bickering and infighting that often gums up legislatures” (Issues

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In recent years, the U.S. Senate has been embroiled in a countless number of filibusters which have a long history in the U.S. Congress. To supporters of the filibuster, such political procedures play an important role in a democratic society. They believe that the filibuster embodies the spirits of democracy to protect the minority from oppression in the United States. Reformers or skeptics of the filibuster, on the other hand, believe that filibusters sometimes severely hinder the operations of the government. Although people have witnessed many filibusters in history, the number of filibusters in the past few years surprised and infuriated many in America.

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Would you tell the truth if the whole world would explode? In some circumstances the truth is not always the best tactic. Many scenarios may not be life threatening, but there is a price to be paid by choosing to tell the truth as Sekhar had learned in R. K. Narayan’s short story, “Like the Sun”. You should not go around telling lies to everyone about everything, but sometimes not telling the absolute truth may be best. Honesty is not always the best policy in some incidents because you could hurt someone’s feelings, put your relationship with others at risk, or reveal confidential information.

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