admitting this idea about the votes about whether to have votes have become important to voters. should they be? the idea of the cloture votes. look, if obama care s passing, if obama care s 2,400 pages shouldn t it only matter if it s signed by the president? shouldn t it only member if this thing passes? and the house and members of the senate should do everything they can to stop this. when we look at the bill, this bill creates virtually universal background checks. you can have stings, and it s specifical specifically stipulated in the bill, you can have stings. they can put you in jail for up to five years, even if you didn t know you were breaking the law. even if you didn t know you were breaking the law, you re breaking the law. not breaking the law, i went 40 in a 25, i didn t know it was a 25. do you think you should go to jail for five years? so when we have universal background checks and you re talking about stings going on at gun show, you re talking about a
getting started. not to mention the national labor relations board. we could go on and on. let s turn now to former senator tom daschle who is the former majority leader for the democrats and author of the book the u.s. senate. tom, great to see you, good to have you with us tonight. great to be with you, ed. you bet. well, in your book, the u.s. senate, what do you say about filibusters now? well, it s been abused, you re absolutely right. the numbers speak for themselves. we have more than twice as many cloture votes in the last congress, ed, as we did in the 50-year period between 1917 and 1967. that was a time during the civil rights era and vietnam and all of the other things we faced. twice as many in two years as we
have you with us tonight. great to be with you, ed. you bet. well, in your book, the u.s. senate, what do you say about filibusters now? well, it s been abused, you re absolutely right. the numbers speak for themselves. we have more than twice as many cloture votes in the last congress, ed, as we did in the 50-year period between 1917 and 1967. that was a time during the civil rights era and vietnam and all of the other things we faced. twice as many in two years as we did in 50. that s all you need to know about the abuse of filibusters today. yeah. you re a close friend, worked with him for years, harry reid, what should he do? what can he do? well, harry s done all, i think he thinks he is capable of doing right now under the circumstances. he doesn t want to violate the rules of the senate in ways that would speed the process for dealing with rule change.
democrats and author of the book the u.s. senate. tom, great to see you, good to have you with us tonight. great to be with you, ed. you bet. well, in your book, the u.s. senate, what do you say about filibusters now? well, it s been abused, you re absolutely right. the numbers speak for themselves. we have more than twice as many cloture votes in the last congress, ed, as we did in the 50-year period between 1917 and 1967. that was a time during the civil rights era and vietnam and all of the other things we faced. twice as many in two years as we did in 50. that s all you need to know about the abuse of filibusters today. yeah. you re a close friend, worked with him for years, harry reid, what should he do? what can he do? well, harry s done all, i think he thinks he is capable of doing right now under the circumstances. he doesn t want to violate the rules of the senate in ways that would speed the process for dealing with rule change. but i actually think there are a
wild horses aren t going to drag me off this floor until those people have heard everything i ve got to say, even if it takes all winter. that s right. in mr. smith goes to washington the filibuster exposed a secret problem in washington. today the filibuster is the secret problem. i think any plans to expose it, making politicians accountable for their obstruction would be a step towards ending gridlock in this congress. . that would definitely be quite a spectacle, seeing senators on the floor all night long, reading historic documents, a phone book, cookbooks, they say that the minority protection rights in the filibuster are a good thing, and number two, they say there is no point in making them actually use up all that time because they are demonstrating their willingness to filibuster amount. you the so-called cloture votes. but the big difference you saw from the mr. smith is look, in the old days there was a penalty