@Finn dAbuzz,
Finn dAbuzz wrote:
Truly rich is the number of comments in this forum suggesting that the shut down was the fault of the GOP that controls both houses of Congress.
Apparently, they never heard of a filibuster and the requirement of 60 votes for cloture.
Let me try to lay this out as clearly as I can formulate my thoughts.
a) The republicans control the legislative agenda
b) Democrats cannot bring bills to debate or to a vote
I hope we can agree so far.
c) Republicans set up a timeline to end DACA
d) Republicans stopped funding CHIP
e) Republicans did not submit a budget in early 2017
f) Republicans have been insisting on funding a government via Continuing Resolutions for years and years
Are we still in agreement?
g) Republicans know about the 60 vote threshold on CR bills
h) Republicans knew that the democrats wanted a resolution on CHIP and DACA in return for their vote for this CR.
i) They knew about h) for weeks/months before this vote in December
j) For weeks/months they never brought up a bill to the floor for CHIP
k) For weeks/months they never brought up a bill to the floor for DACA
So far I think we're still in agreement...or at least I can't think of what fact I've stated above is incorrect.
Conclusion -- If all these things are true, and the republicans could have seen this coming for weeks/months (i) but choose not to put anything in the bill to garner support from Democrat legislators before this vote or with this vote (j, k), despite knowing that this would be required and that they'd need minority party votes to pass a CR (g).....well, the conclusion that I draw from this is that the Republicans control the congress, they set the agenda for bills, they know the rules of the Senate, they knew only had 45 votes for the bill (not nearly 60), they knew how to get the remaining republican votes and democratic votes, and they
still allowed a shutdown to happen on their watch.
What is your conclusion, given the facts as I've laid out?