"The Senate health care debate has run into a major delaying maneuver by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma, who demanded that a proposed amendment be read in full -- a move that could take hours.
The amendment, which is more than 700 pages long and has no chance of passing, would create a single-payer health system. It was offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent socialist from Vermont , who caucuses with the Democrats.
The reading of bills and amendments is allowed under Senate rules, but usually is waived."
Wait, there's more...
"Update at 2:45 p.m. ET: Sanders withdraws his amendment, ending the extended reading.
Update at 2:52 p.m. ET: Sanders move came only moments after the Senate's second-highest ranking Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said the decision to require the reading of the amendment was part of a broader attempt by Republicans to "bring down health care reform." Durbin argued that the delay also jeopardizes last-minute legislation to fund the Department of Defense. "We have very little time," Durbin said."
Oh no! Reading the bill would have "jeopardize[d] last-minute legislation to fund the Department of Defense"! Quelle horreur!
Here I am ready to re-think Alexander Cockburn's characterization of Sanders as a "hack Democrat," and this comes along. Will an opportunity for a twofer like this ever occur again for any putative "independent" socialist politician in the US of A? All Sanders had to do was call a fucking bluff. Well, two bluffs--Coburn's and whatever Durbin may have threatened Sanders with.
I am also alternating admiration of Sen. Coburn's parliamentary savvy with stunned disbelief. Do you mean to tell me that the august body that dreamed up the filibuster almost two centuries ago never got around to figuring out this tactic before today? If I understand correctly, it means that *only one* Senator could have killed the USA PATRIOT Act (I believe the same rule applies to the reading of bills as applies to amendments?), with no threat of a closure vote or damage to the honorable solon's larynx. (I think in this case, in perfectly appropriate bourgeois fashion, the actual labor of reading would be dumped on a recording secretary or some other Senate employee. Maybe someone more expert than me in US Senate rules can answer definitively. Although I respect the privacy of anyone who is reluctant to admit to such perverse knowledge.)
On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:33 AM, Nicholas Ruiz III
<editor at intertheory.org> wrote:
> http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2009/12/gop-slows-down-senate-debate-by-demanding-full-reading-of-amendment/1