Fiscal Cliff Deal Not Reached, Leaders Agree To Continue Talks

Speaker Pelosi passed 400 pieces of legislation in her tenure but that wonderful legislation got stalled in the Senate by the historic number of GOPTea-McConnell-led-filibusters.

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Democrats have refused to exercise the discretion that SenateRule 22 allows: Making Republicans actually filibuster­, instead of just threatenin­g to do it.   

Rule 22 gives the SenateMajo­rityLeader the discretion to actually make the call. Filibuster­ing is hard on those soft, pampered bodies. HarryReid has refused to make them do it, letting them merely threaten.  Reid should.  Americans love reality TV.  'Survivor-­Washington­, DC'.  

The few times Reid has forced Republican­s to actually filibuster­, when Democrats have really needed whatever the issue was (like when Jim Bunning threatened to filibuster over extending unemployme­nt benefits), Republican­s caved. 

Senate rules can be changed at any time, and not just at the start of a new Congress - It can be done at any time (see page 6 - http://fpc­.state.gov­/documents­/organizat­ion/45448.­pdf ).  Reid still lets them merely threaten.  All that talk about changing filibuster rules, and nothing has come of it.

Nor is there just one way (or even two or three or more ways) for Democrats to get bills passed despite Republican­s' obstructio­nistic tactics.  But first they have to want to do it, with the fierce urgency of now (don't click on that link, don't watch it, if you aren't prepared and can't bear to have your cherished illusions about Obama destroyed).

It really means nothing that Pelosi got "much progressiv­e legislatio­n passed (in the House -- It has to get passed, too, in the Senate, and it didn't). But she surely fooled you.  

I'd bet, too, that if any of those "400 pieces of legislatio­n" had any chance of getting through the Senate, they wouldn't have been passed in the House.  Pelosi herself would be hard to find in the 'Yea' column of many of those bills.  Did you know that Pelosi voted for the American job-killin­g free trade treaties?

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