Boy, did Democrats get taken for a ride today.
Today there was some kind of deal in the 2015 Montana legislature that set rules for how the whole damn show will run for the next four month or so.
As far as I can tell, around 1 o’clock this afternoon both the Democrats and Republicans caucused, which means they had a meeting. After that they started a floor session around 2 o’clock and decided to start doing some work, which consisted of deciding the rules governing how bills will be heard.
What they decided was that each party could have 6 silver bullet bills, which are bills that only require a vote of 51 to get out of committee, not 60 votes. So in other words, these are called blast bills as they can be blasted from committee.
Why does this matter? It matters because there are 59 Republicans in the Montana House of Representatives, and that means it’s harder than hell to get a bill out of committee for those 41 Democrats. And trust me, if someone doesn’t want something to become law, they just leave it in committee.
These silver bullets allow those dead and forgotten bills to be resurrected, something that’s great, right? Wrong.
Today there was some kind of deal in the 2015 Montana legislature that set rules for how the whole damn show will run for the next four month or so.
As far as I can tell, around 1 o’clock this afternoon both the Democrats and Republicans caucused, which means they had a meeting. After that they started a floor session around 2 o’clock and decided to start doing some work, which consisted of deciding the rules governing how bills will be heard.
What they decided was that each party could have 6 silver bullet bills, which are bills that only require a vote of 51 to get out of committee, not 60 votes. So in other words, these are called blast bills as they can be blasted from committee.
Why does this matter? It matters because there are 59 Republicans in the Montana House of Representatives, and that means it’s harder than hell to get a bill out of committee for those 41 Democrats. And trust me, if someone doesn’t want something to become law, they just leave it in committee.
These silver bullets allow those dead and forgotten bills to be resurrected, something that’s great, right? Wrong.
Why only 6 of these silver bullets? Why is that the magic number? That was the deal. As I saw Mike Dennison note on Twitter, this could mean Democrats could blast through Medicaid expansion with just 51 votes.
But remember, they only get 6 of these silver bullets, so they have to use them wisely.
Wow, what a fuck-up!
Instead of doing the rules like we should, with a vote of 51 votes to get something out of committee, we’ve compromised and said we’ll just do that for 6 of the bills we like. Since there are 2,193 bills introduced so far, we’ll only have a good chance of passing 6...or 0.27% of them.
Is this the compromise that Democrats were talking about when they were trying to get elected? Because to me it seems like eating scraps off the floor that have been pushed there by the GOP for us to get excited over. And I think people will get excited over this. I’m still trying to figure out why everyone just went along with the idea of allowing 61 votes, like it was some kind of given right off the bat. I don’t think it was.
Are we dogs gnawing on bones here? It sure seems that way to me, I will say that. I don’t know what else to say to this travesty that happened today, to be completely honest with you.
I guess we could say that we don’t have to worry about super majorities blocking the Democratic process, just majorities again…but only for 6 bills.
But remember, they only get 6 of these silver bullets, so they have to use them wisely.
Wow, what a fuck-up!
Instead of doing the rules like we should, with a vote of 51 votes to get something out of committee, we’ve compromised and said we’ll just do that for 6 of the bills we like. Since there are 2,193 bills introduced so far, we’ll only have a good chance of passing 6...or 0.27% of them.
Is this the compromise that Democrats were talking about when they were trying to get elected? Because to me it seems like eating scraps off the floor that have been pushed there by the GOP for us to get excited over. And I think people will get excited over this. I’m still trying to figure out why everyone just went along with the idea of allowing 61 votes, like it was some kind of given right off the bat. I don’t think it was.
Are we dogs gnawing on bones here? It sure seems that way to me, I will say that. I don’t know what else to say to this travesty that happened today, to be completely honest with you.
I guess we could say that we don’t have to worry about super majorities blocking the Democratic process, just majorities again…but only for 6 bills.
I think it’s wrong, myself, and if no one else will say it today then I will. The bill passed 87-13, so a lot of people think having this idea is good, including a lot of Democrats. Which people voted against it?
Lot of the crazy Republicans in that list, so why do I agree with them? Because in my mind there’s only 6 bills that Democrats will get through now, or 6 things from their want list. Is that good enough? I guess for most people it is. But I know that those 6 things will benefit the upper classes of the state while benefiting me not at all. No, I think this is a real sham, and I’m very disappointed.
- Bennett, Gerald (Jerry)
- Doane, Alan
- Fitzpatrick, Steve
- Flynn, Kelly
- Harris, Bill
- Hess, Stephanie
- Miller, Mike
- Mortensen, Dale
- Schwaderer, Nicholas
- Wagoner, Kirk
- White, Kerry
- Wittich, Art
- Zolnikov, Daniel
Lot of the crazy Republicans in that list, so why do I agree with them? Because in my mind there’s only 6 bills that Democrats will get through now, or 6 things from their want list. Is that good enough? I guess for most people it is. But I know that those 6 things will benefit the upper classes of the state while benefiting me not at all. No, I think this is a real sham, and I’m very disappointed.
