This is exactly what I have been saying. Shut it down, Mr. President! DO NOT sign that budget.

Gridlock is the status quo in Washington. Always has been. The reason for the gridlock is the relative parity, in terms of numbers, of the parties in power, Democrats versus Republicans.

Democrats can’t agree with Republicans lest they weaken their own party, and vice versa. With supermajorities needed to get things done, neither party is able to accomplish a lot except more and more spending, much of it on pork barrel projects. Congress has no heart and no conscience, generally speaking. They will shove this unnecessary debt down the throats of Mom and Pop America with nary a care.

Shut it down, Mr. President!

And if President Trump thought getting 60 votes in the Senate was tough, wait until he tries getting 2/3 of both chambers of Congress to agree to a constitutional amendment requiring a simple majority (51%) to pass legislation. It may be easier to get 3/4 of the states to ratify the proposed amendment.

President Trump is right. We need ito “change the rules.” It is my understanding that the 60-vote rule is a self-imposed requirement in the Senate rules, which can be altered by a simple majority vote. In other words, all that has to happen to drop the 60-vote requirement to 51 is a majority Senate vote (51%) in favor of the rule change. The Republicans should be able to accomplish this easily so that we can move forward with a REAL budget that makes sense. ALL of President Trump’s proposed budget makes sense.

Now it is up to the patriots in Congress to see that it happens. I do not include McConnell and Paul Rino in that group. Both are pushing this odious steaming pile of a budget mess.

From Fair.org

Writing about the Employee Free Choice Act, Melanie Trottman and Brody Mullins of the Wall Street Journal write (3/10/09):

At least six Senators who have voted to move forward with the so-called card-check proposal, including one Republican, now say they are opposed or not sure–an indication that Senate Democratic leaders are short of the 60 votes they need for approval.

It really is worth being specific on this: It does not take 60 votes to pass an ordinary bill in the Senate; it takes a majority of the senators voting. If everyone is present, it takes 51 votes, or 50 votes if the vice president votes to break the tie. Under the current rules of the Senate–which can be altered by a majority vote–it takes 60 votes to proceed to a vote on a bill when some senators want to continue debate forever, or filibuster.

It has not traditionally been the custom that every bill gets a filibuster and so requires 60 votes in order to pass; plenty of bills in the past have passed the Senate with fewer than 60 votes. In recent years, the filibuster has changed from an occasional gambit to a more routine part of the process. Since the Democrats took back the Senate after the 2006 elections, it has become almost a matter of course that a bill opposed by most of the minority party will have to overcome a filibuster in order to pass.

But that doesn’t mean that a bill needs 60 votes to be approved; it means 41 senators can keep a bill from being voted on. The distinction is worth making, particularly since the ability of the minority to obstruct is dependent on the willingness of the majority to be obstructed.