Dem Rep. Slotkin: Filibuster, As it Is Now Being Used, Needs to Go

Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who is running to replace retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), said Monday on MSNBC’s “The Last Word”  that the Senate’s filibuster rule “needs to go.”

Anchor Lawrence O’Donnell said, “Let’s go to that issue right there, the so-called filibuster rule. I know that members of the House will be looking over at the Senate, complaining about the Senate rules that always seem to get in the way of the legislation that the House could pass. Would you vote in the Senate to get rid of that current 60-vote filibuster rule?”

Slotkin said, “Yes, I think the filibuster, as it is now being used, needs to go.”

She continued, “I’ve already set on issues of democracy, changing in affecting our democracy, things like voting rights we have to be able to get and vote in. I’m all for going back into the old school, standing filibuster, talking filibuster, where if you care passionately about an issue, you can go up there, talk for 18 hours straight, delay the bringing of that bill to the floor, that’s like the 1830s, early America stuff that I am fine with. But the idea that a couple, a handful of senators, can just stop bills from even coming to the floor and getting an up or down vote, I just don’t think that makes sense. In the House, we’ve got so many bipartisan bills, things that have passed with both Democrat and Republican support the do not even get an up or down vote in the Senate because of those rules.”

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