'Unprecedented'

So using the budget reconciliation process is unprecedented. And using Deem and Pass is unprecedented. According to my conservative friends, it's all unprecedented. The fact that budget reconciliation and Deem and Pass were both common Republican tactics does not, it seems, lend them any precedent. It's as if what's really unprecedented is Democrats being unwilling to fold in the face of Republican obstruction.

We have to make a decision here, though. Is it a problem if the workings of Congress are transformed by unprecedented use of existing rules? If so, then we need to start with the filibuster. The fact that Democrats had to break more filibusters last year than in the 1950s and 1960s combined is, quite literally, unprecedented.

And let me be clear: I think this is a problem. You can't run the Senate on a supermajority requirement. Budget reconciliation is a limited and bizarre process. Deem and Pass is, as I said yesterday, both politically and substantively inane. Congress needs to decide how the place is going to be run and then rewrite the rulebook so that it actually works that way. Otherwise, it's just going to be one unprecedented event after another. Unprecedented use of the filibuster will trigger unprecedented reliance on reconciliation. Unprecedented gridlock in the Senate will lead to unprecedented efforts by the House to protect itself from Senate failure.

But you can't pick and choose. Either unprecedented use of the rules is a problem or it isn't. But if it is, then you have to be upset about the filibuster. And if it isn't, then you can't be upset when the rules are manipulated by both sides. Congress can work by the letter of its laws or by the spirit of their intent, but it's got to be one or the other.

Graph credit: Norm Ornstein/The American.