Filibuster: What it is, how it could affect Biden’s agenda in Senate | Just the FAQs

A Senate filibuster may kill Biden's agenda, stirring calls to end the controversial tactic. Here's how a filibuster works and its history, explained.
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WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden's prospects of pushing through his ambitious priorities on COVID-19 relief, racial justice and climate change certainly improved when Democrats won both Georgia Senate seats – and full control of Congress – earlier this month.

But the retention of the Senate filibuster – a congressional tactic that essentially requires 60 Senate votes to get bills passed – means the new president might have to rein in some of his most progressive ideas because the moderates in both parties he'll need to pass legislation won't go for them.

A raise in the federal minimum wage to $15. A curb in oil and gas development. Efforts to reverse decades of systemic racial discrimination. The Senate filibuster makes those much harder lifts.

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20 comments

  1. If you are working for a
    FAiL iRRESPONSiBLE BUSiNESS
    that can’t afford to pay a
    living wage with benefits

    They can’t afford to be in business
    paying Americans poverty wages

    So they can own a business
    Is entitlement at it’s finest

    They are asking human
    beings to use their lives,
    to subsidize their desire
    to own a business

    If a job is worth being done
    it’s worth being paid to live

    I side with the American workers
    for these reasons

    America needs to return back to
    paying a living wage with benefits

    Our government and companies
    for the past 30 years
    have been getting richer
    While Americans get screwed

    Our government does everything
    in their legislative power to pass
    legislation to screw Americans

    Millions Americans working full time
    are still having to rely on food stamps,
    housing, medical, shelter assistance

    No full time Americans should be
    in need of any of that if they got
    paid a living wage with benefits..

    1. @Pete C
      Sorry to have TRiGGER you…
      But I SAiD What I SAiD…
      FAiLED Business owners are not ENTiTLED to slave labor.
      If a FiNANCiALLY iRRESPONSiBLE BUSiNESS OWNER can’t afford to pay its worker a LiVABLE WAGE, then survival of the fittest will CLOSE them down.
      Then a FiNANCiALLY RESPONSiBLE BUSiNESS OWNER paying LiVABLE WAGE can thrive in its place.

    2. @Phx King you do realize there’s different classifications of businesses, correct? Small, medium and large?

      Large and medium can refinance their debt to absorb the higher wages.

      Small businesses make up 79% of the economy.

      Since small businesses die due to higher wages, medium and large businesses survive.

      Then they will use money to lobby government to have lower wages again and it will pass because there’s no more smaller businesses opposing them.

      If you are for higher wages then you’re in favor of people like Bezos.

  2. The filibuster protects the minority and the democrats sure enjoyed it when they were in the minority.
    Leave senate rules as they are and learn how to compromise.

  3. Once again the democrats want to change the rules after they used them to their advantage for years.
    I noticed they stopped talking about eliminating the electoral college as soon as they won…

  4. Can’t help but laugh my butt off. We have been dealing with Fillibusters for the past 5 years non stop. And it’s only when Biden is president, that we wanna teach people what it is…. God we are so blind

  5. R K
    It was put in place, so both parties are forced to negotiate, rather than having one party ram through policies against half the country. Well crafted.

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