There's a reason Democratic voters aren't so hot on abolishing the filibuster
by Washington Examiner, |
| August 16, 2020 12:00 AM
A new poll shows that Democratic voters are not nearly as eager as Democratic lawmakers to abolish the filibuster. Even with presumptive nominee Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris both speaking favorably of the idea of gutting the Senate minority’s traditional rights, only 15% of the Democrats' actual voters relish the prospect.
Why might this be? It isn’t hard to understand. As we have noted previously, if a simple majority in Congress can easily make changes to federal statutes, then it can dismantle the Democrats’ favored vision of the administrative state beyond any easy or quick repair. Such a change of Senate procedure would backfire dramatically upon the party of big government.
In a world without filibusters, government programs and regulatory regimes that Democrats typically value could be ripped to shreds every two or four years. In some cases, they might have to be rebuilt from scratch over and over again. The mere potential for such chaos would make certain kinds of programs impossible to maintain and would discourage members of Congress from ever creating them in the first place.
For example, if you favor Medicaid expansion, or even just Medicaid at all, abolition of the filibuster is not a good idea. Without a filibuster, there would be no Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Obamacare would already be history if not for the filibuster, which sharply limited congressional Republicans' options when they were trying to repeal it. Welfare programs could be reformed routinely such that eligibility criteria are altered every year or every other year — or every time there is a change in political power. This would wreak havoc on ordinary people looking for ways to comply with the rules.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/theres-a-reason-democratic-voters-arent-so-hot-on-abolishing-the-filibuster
