Why You Should Care About the Fate Of The Filibuster

Faster government growth and even more debt is on the line

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President Trump pushed Republicans to get rid of the Senate filibuster during the recent shutdown. His spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, has been keeping the drumbeat going. Before them, numerous Democrats have advocated that as well.

Here’s why you should care about that.

Keep in mind that, throughout history, politicians opposing legislation have been creative about how to stop legislation from becoming law. That has included not showing up to work, thereby preventing a quorum and action on legislation. That happened in Texas last year.

For its part, the long-winded speeches known as filibustering are likely as old as elected governments. “It appeared in the very first session of the Senate. On September 22, 1789, Pennsylvania Senator William Maclay wrote in his diary that the “design of the Virginians . . . was to talk away the time, so that we could not get the bill passed.”

The modern American Senate filibuster and the related procedural rule of “cloture” are closely related. Cloture is the procedure by which a certain percentage can vote to end all of the talking. At one point, in American history, it required a 2/3rds vote and then, in 1975, that was reduced to today’s 60 votes.

Not everything coming out of Senate, however, requires 60 votes. Nomination approvals only require a majority vote as well as reconciliation packages. Most legislation, however, requires a cloture vote – including the recent government shutdown/spending bill.

Why should you care about that?

Always remember that the Founders did not want centralized government.

They understood that centralized power, always and everywhere, was the sworn enemy of freedom. So, they fought a King for the purpose of decentralizing power and putting it into the hands of citizens.

They did so well aware of the Law of History that power centralizes over time. To slow that process, they instituted check and balances with three separate branches, the Legislative, the Executive and the Judicial.

They also knew if the House of Representatives was in the hands of one party and the Senate in another, that no party could grow government quickly.

They were right and, although the subsequent filibuster and cloture rule were not of their making, it fit in well with their designs.

Remember that, in our history, the largest growth in our government came with the New Deal when the House, the Senate and the Presidency were in the hands of the Democrats. Then in the 1960s, under Democrat President Johnson, the Great Society spending was passed by the House and Senate controlled by Democrats. Then, under Obama, the Democrats instituted Obamacare without a single Republican vote.

Today’s massive spending and debt problems relate to those programs.

Even so, the filibuster/cloture tandem has slowed growth. I cannot imagine what that chart would look like without them.

That is why we should care the filibuster and cloture now.

HOWEVER, it is pretty clear that today’s Democrats – many of whom endorsed Mamdani in New York and the party of which Bernie Sanders and AOC are the biggest voices and the largest fundraisers – will get rid of the filibuster/cloture rule for legislation.

They have come close to doing so in the past and started that process by making certain nominations subject to majority vote where once they weren’t. In 2024, Senate Democrat leader Schumer indicated changes to the 60 vote rule would be made if they took the Senate that year.

Post Trump, the Democrats will be more radicalized. Schumer would easily succumb to their demands to keep his leadership position as would anyone who replaces him.

If they do get rid of the 60-vote requirement, Democrats would make DC a state and Puerto Rico a state as well. Why? Because that would add 4 Democrat Senators and allow them to rest control of the Senate from Republicans for years to come.

Then you will see spending really skyrocket.

Even the liberal Brooking Institute notes that “Rising debt as a share of GDP over the coming decades means that future generations will be worse off than if less debt was accumulated.”

That should be a parade of horribles for anyone who understands we cannot keep growing government and pushing the national debt to $50 trillion in the 2030s and watch interest on the debt become the largest budgetary item of federal spending (it is #3 now).

So, what should Republicans and Trump do?

Trump says they should do it to institute strong debt reduction and economic growth programs.

Even so, it would be a Faustian bargain if ever there was one.

Given the chart above, it seems inevitable.

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Thomas G Del Beccaro is a historian and Author of The Divided Era and The Lessons of the American Civilization.

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