Senator Tom Carper supports the EPA’s Clean Air Good Neighbor Rule which would demand that the EPA better regulate air pollution. Senator Rand Paul hates clean air and wants to end the EPA. Senator Rand Paul has introduced Senate Joint Resolution, which disapproves of the rule and would prevent it from being enacted. Carper says he will fight for the rule…… in a debate on the Senate floor.
Pardon my French, Senator Carper, but fuck that. I fully expect you to filibuster Sen. Paul’s resolution, and I fully expect you make sure this rule never makes it to a full vote. If votes on creating American jobs are to be subject to cloture votes and blocked by your Republican friends, I expect you to return the favor.
This is the new normal, since you Senate Democrats were too cowardly to change the Senate Rules in January 2010. If you oppose a thing, you filibuster it to death. If you want to pass something, you must get 60 votes to even debate it. Make Rand Paul find 60 votes.
UPDATE from the News Journal:
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is bypassing the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and forcing a floor vote on his measure under a fast-track procedure.
Paul’s proposal will require a 51-vote majority to pass rather than the 60 votes required to overcome filibusters in the Senate. The House, which already has passed legislation to delay the EPA rule, also would have to pass the resolution.
The measure isn’t expected to pass the Senate. If it did, President Barack Obama probably would veto it.
So Carper cannot filibuster this. How convenient that Republicans get to have their resolutions fast tracked and not subject to the filibuster. Hey Democrats, how about using this fast track procedure for all of our legislation? Like creating jobs?