It's stunning to me that we are talking about giving the Republicans more power than they already have in Congress this fall.
The Republicans have 41 votes in the Senate - a sufficient number for them to block absolutely every bit of business in the Senate. And no, we cannot use budget reconciliation for all business in the Senate - the 50+1 votes for budget reconciliation procedures can only be used for a very limited number of parliamentary procedures.
Those of us who are concerned about the slow pace of progress should remember that the Republicans are only posturing, because they have no good ideas. Their plan to improve the economy and reduce the unemployment figures would in fact explode the deficit. You cannot cut taxes and cut the deficit at the same time without dramatically reducing spending, which would even more dramatically hurt our economy overall.
I think every American voter should see the following video as an illustration of what I'm talking about:
This 5-minute video sums up what the Republicans in Congress have been doing. The only difference between the House and the Senate is that the Senate can make its objections anonymously, which means they can simply block progress without saying a word.
A shorter one-minute video is available here:
The unprecedented obstruction of the Republican Party is not something that the Democratic leadership or the White House can do anything about. This is the strategic decision that the Republicans have made - to muddy the waters as much as possible so that American voters hoping for change will become disillusioned with the entire process. The GOP is hoping for failure. And they are being un-cooperative ... not because the Democrats are pursuing some radical agenda, but because the Republicans have nothing of value to offer.
Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Eugene Robinson gets it half-right when he says that the American electorate is a bunch of spoiled brats. But the other half of this is that a large swath of the American electorate are totally misinformed about who is to blame for the obstruction, delay, and lack of progress. Congressional Republicans are using classic "one-down" passive-aggressive behavior to block progress, then claiming that they are merely the victims of the "radical Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda".
It's up to us, this fall, to make the case clearly that Republicans who fail to collaborate with their colleagues across the aisle have no business getting re-elected. The Democrats, led by President Obama, have repeatedly extended an open hand, only to have it slapped away or ignored completely by the passive-aggressive Republicans. It is important for us to acknowledge that reality, explain clearly what the rules are, and help the American public to make decisions that are in our own best interests, instead of being hoodwinked once again by the party of repeal and repeat.
Update: Timbuk3 brings another video up in the comments.