This week’s budget votes allow No Budget, No Pay to be discussed on the Senate floor.
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No Labels is high-fiving Senator Mark Pryor for noting the absurdity of the current budget process and calling for reform.
Yesterday the Senate passed bipartisan legislation by a 78-20 vote -- and it didn't just name a post office. The legislation reauthorized the 80-year-old Export-Import Bank, which makes loan guarantees to foreign buyers who seek to do business with U.S. exporters.
Sen. Dean Heller took to the Senate floor today and asked for a vote on the No Budget, No Pay Act (S. 1981).
This November, let us remember that compromise is not synonymous with betrayal or independence a weakness. Let us reward candidates who put country ahead of party and progress before ideological orthodoxy. Above all, let us look for candidates with the character to write new profiles in courage.
What if there were no labels, only ideas? What if, for example, we only referred to healthcare as healthcare, not Obamacare or Romneycare? Not the Democratic program or the Republican program, but the healthcare program. What would organizations on one side or the other do if their only alternative was to come together? They would spend more time Promoting Positivity instead of Fighting Negativity, promoting positive issues instead of trying to beat back negative ones.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is taking fire from the right for working across the aisle too often.
Welcome to The Take, a quick and easy look at the news of the week from the No Labels POV. For real-time updates, follow No Labels on Twitter @NoLabelsOrg.
FINALLY A FIX? On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took to the Senate floor to call for fixes to the filibuster, adding his voice to a growing reform movement. There have been 100 filibusters in the Senate in the last two years alone. Reid's frustration boiled over when senators used a filibuster to oppose routine renewal of the Export-Import Bank's charter and prevent debate on federal student loan rates.
Which one of the following filibusters involved poison? 1) An early 1900s filibuster in the Rhode Island Senate 2) Strom Thurmond's 24-hour 18-minute filibuster during debate over the Civil Rights Act of 1957 3) Huey Long's 1935 filibuster when he asked the press what he should talk about (eventually he decided recipes) 4) Robert LaFollette's 1908 filibuster to protest a banking bill 5) Bernie Sanders' filibuster in 2010 over the extension of the Bush tax cuts.
Filibusters can become very theatrical at times. It takes a lot of emotion for someone to be willing to stand on the floor and speak for hours at a time without any kind of break. On occasion, they have even gotten violent. While we at No Labels would prefer the parties to work together, rather than actively antagonize each other as happened in a few of these examples, we thought it would be fun to review some of the most memorable filibusters of all time.
Earlier this week, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) expressed his support for filibuster reform. But where did the filibuster come from? Here's a quick timeline:
