Category: Harry Reid

Rep. Martin Heinrich Calls for Senate to End Silent Filibuster

March 11, 2010 by Democracy for N...

Udall charge to change filibuster rules gains steam

March 11, 2010 by New Mexico FBIHOP

Sen. Tom Udall has been pushing to change Senate rules when it comes to filibuster, citing record use of the procedural tactic by Republicans. Republicans have been using it to stall every piece of major legislation (and many that aren't so major) since the Democrats took over the Senate in 2006.

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the Senate Rules Committee would hold hearings on the idea of changing the filibuster; Udall and Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, will be among those to testify. Harkin a proponent of changing the filibuster.

Today, he wrote a diary on Daily Kos about his efforts to change the filibuster.

We've seen good ideas from Senators Tom Harkin, Michael Bennet and others, and I'm looking forward to our upcoming hearings on the filibuster in the Senate Rules Committee.  Yesterday, I was glad to hear Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid confirm that the best way for us to amend the Rules is at the beginning of the 112th Congress, as I proposed in January.

On The Fear Of Government, Or, Let's Get Back To Basics

March 11, 2010 by Uppity Wisconsin

It seems like everywhere you look these days, someone’s trying to spread...The Fear.

All around us...in every town...on every corner...a massive Army Of Fear is standing by, according to the Messengers, ready at a moment’s notice to obey the dictates of some unappointed Czar or another.

Just ask Glenn Beck: concentration camps for the white people, jackbooted stormtroopers ready to snatch the guns from your cold dead fingers...Socialist Government-Controlled Healthcare That Threatens Your Not Socialist Medicare...it’s all coming, my friends—and unless we organize, as a community, to return to the values of the Founding Fathers, The Government, meaning that awful Obama and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and George Soros and all the other Evil Community Organizers, will win.

There’s no government, we’re told, like no government.

You know who would find all of this fear of self-government just entirely bizarre?

The Founding Fathers.

In today’s conversation we’ll consider the fundamentals of American patriotism, we’ll ask one of those Founding Fathers how he saw the role of Government—and we’ll toss in a few words from Abraham Lincoln, just for good measure.

Long-term unemployed pay the price for Senate dysfunction

February 28, 2010 by Bleeding Heartland

As long-term unemployment continues to rise, unemployment benefits for many Americans will run out tonight because the U.S. Senate failed to pass a bill extending the benefits late last week. An estimated 1.2 million Americans, including about 75,000 Iowans, stand to lose unemployment benefits during the month of March if Congress does not act. For reasons I don't understand, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid left the benefits extension out of the jobs bill approved by the Senate on February 24.

The following day, the House of Representatives approved a separate bill containing a one-month extension of unemployment benefits, federal subsidies for people on COBRA health insurance plans, current Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors, and a few other programs. Democrats tried to bring this bill up for a Senate vote right away, but retiring Republican Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky repeatedly objected to motions for unanimous consent.