by Bob Casey Jr.
From the PATRIOT-NEWS:
…Partisan gridlock is out of control. Senate rules have been systematically abused to block legislation, obstruct real debate and play politics. The Senate often spends more time debating whether it should debate a bill than debating the actual issue.
In a noted conversation between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Washington explained the creation of the Senate by saying “we pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it.” Because of abuse of rules in the intervening time, the Senate has unfortunately become less like a saucer and more like a boiling kettle.
For example, at the end of last year a bill to provide health care to heroes who became ill after responding to the Sept. 11 attacks was repeatedly delayed when Senate Republicans prevented the Senate from even debating the legislation. Later, it faced additional delays and threats to passage when one senator held up the bill’s progress…
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