- Sep 26, 2000
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A little known policy instituted by the Republicans shortly after Bushes elections was the rule of the ?majority of the majority?. In the Republican caucus they decided that party policy would be that there would be no bipartisan legislation not approved by the majority of the majority.
In other words in the Senate at that time there was 50 Republicans and 26 of them (a majority) would make all the decisions. There would be party discipline. It would be enforced by the 26 (actually they had 27 or 28 at that time) who were part of this majority. It would also be enforced by the the Republican K Street initiative (Tom Delay and others plan to isolate business contributions from individual candidates and have the money be given instead to the Republican Party to distribute to candidates).
Senator Jim Jeffords who was a Republican at that time was the first to violate these rules. He was informed he would be frozen out forever from having any say on legislation. This is what influenced him to change parties to the Democrats.
With the Republicans now having 55 seats the majority number is about 28-29.
What this has done is give 28 Senators who represent about 28 percent of the people control over the US Senate (the same was going in the House).
There were many proposals that clearly had a majority of the Senates votes. Say 24 Republicans and 45 Democrats for a total of 69 votes an overwhelming majority.
But the majority of the majority foiled this will of the people.
What we are seeing now is the lack of fear by the Republicans who are part of the minority of the majority to join with Democrats to vote as they would like.
This has been the big change brought about by the low Bush poll numbers and the public dislike of the deficits, the war in Iraq and the economic policies of the neo-cons.
This bodes well for the country. We could fix Social Security tomorrow for the next 80 years if the Republicans would let a vote be taken on a combination of raising the retirement age a small amount and increasing the SS tax a small amount. Easily gets over 65 votes in the Senate. We could even go a long way to fixing the deficit. Raise the tax rate 1 percent on those earning over 100,000 a year, raise 70 billion in revenue by repealing a fraction of the new business giveaways and cut spending by 100 billion with each party giving up 50 billion of its pet projects.
Let?s hope we this trend continues and the idea that the majority of the majority (which is actually a small minority) shall perish from this country.
In other words in the Senate at that time there was 50 Republicans and 26 of them (a majority) would make all the decisions. There would be party discipline. It would be enforced by the 26 (actually they had 27 or 28 at that time) who were part of this majority. It would also be enforced by the the Republican K Street initiative (Tom Delay and others plan to isolate business contributions from individual candidates and have the money be given instead to the Republican Party to distribute to candidates).
Senator Jim Jeffords who was a Republican at that time was the first to violate these rules. He was informed he would be frozen out forever from having any say on legislation. This is what influenced him to change parties to the Democrats.
With the Republicans now having 55 seats the majority number is about 28-29.
What this has done is give 28 Senators who represent about 28 percent of the people control over the US Senate (the same was going in the House).
There were many proposals that clearly had a majority of the Senates votes. Say 24 Republicans and 45 Democrats for a total of 69 votes an overwhelming majority.
But the majority of the majority foiled this will of the people.
What we are seeing now is the lack of fear by the Republicans who are part of the minority of the majority to join with Democrats to vote as they would like.
This has been the big change brought about by the low Bush poll numbers and the public dislike of the deficits, the war in Iraq and the economic policies of the neo-cons.
This bodes well for the country. We could fix Social Security tomorrow for the next 80 years if the Republicans would let a vote be taken on a combination of raising the retirement age a small amount and increasing the SS tax a small amount. Easily gets over 65 votes in the Senate. We could even go a long way to fixing the deficit. Raise the tax rate 1 percent on those earning over 100,000 a year, raise 70 billion in revenue by repealing a fraction of the new business giveaways and cut spending by 100 billion with each party giving up 50 billion of its pet projects.
Let?s hope we this trend continues and the idea that the majority of the majority (which is actually a small minority) shall perish from this country.
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