Up or Down « Main Street

Up or Down

In 2005, Senate Republicans threatened to carry out the “nuclear option” of abolishing the filibuster, because Senate Democrats had blocked 10 of the federal appeals court judges George W. Bush had nominated, while allowing 35 to be confirmed. This was intolerable obstructionism, Republicans charged, and everything brought up deserved an “up or down” vote.

In 2003-2004 there had been 49 filibusters; in 2005-2006, there were 54. In 2007-2008, there were 104.

And we all know what’s happening now. Any important legislation “has” to get 60 votes. Although until recently, the filibuster was an extraordinary measure, today it’s taken for granted. Nobody questions that this is the way things are.

But an HCAN poll shows that people—at least in Nebraska, Louisiana, and Arkansas—do question if this is the way things should be.

The poll described the motion to proceed, for example, and asked respondents, “In the Senate, before a bill can be voted on, there must be a vote to allow it to be debated. Regardless of whether you support or oppose the health insurance reform plan itself, do you believe that it should be debated on the floor of the Senate?”

Support was overwhelming in all three conservative “red” states — 88% of Nebraskans, 82% of Louisianans, and 84% of Arkansans all agreed that health care reform should be debated. (It makes one wonder how voters in, say, Maine might feel if they knew that both of their “moderate” Republican senators are opposed to even letting the bill comes to the floor for a debate.)

The poll then asked about cloture: “Once a bill has been debated in the Senate, senators must then vote on whether to allow the bill itself to be voted on. Regardless of whether you support or oppose the health insurance reform plan, do you believe that senators should allow it to be voted on?”

The numbers weren’t quite as strong, but again, support was largely one-sided — 80% of Nebraskans, 77% of Louisianans, and 77% of Arkansans agreed that senators should let health care reform come up for a vote.