Comment on When the Democrats regain power, their centrist leadership will claim, "We can't do anything because...". Don't be fooled. We need to get the corporate centrists out and real progressives in!

• BeefGyro@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  So here’s some basics on how the American government works.

  The house can pass a bill with a simple majority.

  So can the senate. In the event of a tie, the vice president casts the tie breaking vote.

  However, the senate rules are such that in order to get to a vote you need vote to close debate, which takes 60 votes.

  There are exceptions to the 60 vote rule using what’s called budget reconciliation. Matters pertaining just to budgetary items can bypass the 60 vote threshold and be voted on by a simple majority. These items must be cleared with the senate parliamentarian.

  Once a bill has passed both the senate and the house, the president can either sign it or just wait 10 days and do nothing, at which point that bill becomes a law. He can also veto the bills at which point it gets sent back to both the house and senate which can override his veto with a 2/3 vote in both the house and senate.

  If you want to pass a bill over the objections of the president you need two thirds of both the senate and house to agree to do it. If you want to get a bill through the senate that goes beyond budget reconciliation you need 60 senate votes.

  When people talk about a supermajority they may be referring to the 60 votes needed to pass unrestricted bills in the senate, which the democrats had in 2008-2010 when they got Obamacare passed. Or if they are talking about overriding a veto they may be talking about the 2/3 of the votes you’d need in the house AND senate.

  I’m not interested in debating who said what about what when, it just seemed like some people were unaware of the actual rules of how the US federal government functions and hoped to clear that up. If you have any questions about how that stuff works I’m happy to address it with the best of my knowledge. But I have no interest in actually debating politics online.

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  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    So here’s some basics on how the American government works.

    None of this seems to apply when a Republican is in office

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    • bitjunkie@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      the US federal government functions

      I know right, this is what lost me

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      • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I mean, it does function. Just not for the benefit of the working class.

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    • Natanael@infosec.pub ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Because the Republicans break laws and hey sympathetic judges to cover it up

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      • m532@lemmy.ml ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        And the controlled opposition can’t break laws ofc, they might win otherwise.

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    • BeefGyro@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      All of this applies. It’s why republicans were able to pass tax cuts via reconciliation but not the SAVE act. They would have needed to change the filibuster rule and they couldn’t get the 50 votes needed to do it.

      If you want to make long term changes to this country you need to control both houses of congress and the presidency. 2026 elections can change the former but not the latter. Which means dems will be able to stop the insanity but they’re not going to be able to make major changes until they can overcome the veto power. They need to have a democratic president.

      Look, I’m sure you’re passionate about change and want to make a difference, but if you’re not going to get your facts straight and just dismiss everyone who disagrees with you with pithy comments then you’re never going to get enough people on your side to do that. Not enough people will take you seriously and you’ll just end up being spoiler votes that keep people like Trump in power.

      This will be my last post in this thread.

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