Biden Doesn't Like The Filibuster

The president of the Senate does not like the Senate's current rules.

Last night, Vice President Joe Biden--who is also the president of the Senate--had some harsh words for Senate rules allowing filibusters to require 60 votes to pass virtually any piece of legislation Republicans don't like--a setup that has caused massive headaches for Democrats since President Obama took office.

At a DNC fundraiser last night, Biden said, via CBS News, "As long as I have served ... I've never seen, as my uncle once said, the constitution stood on its head as they've done. This is the first time every single solitary decisions has required 60 senators...No democracy has survived needing a super majority."



A reader points out that, when Democrats were in the minority, Biden seemed to see the filibuster in a more favorable light.

In a 2005 New York piece, Biden was quoted as saying that the Senate is a place where "you can always slow things down and make sure that a minority gets a voice" and that "the chance to filibuster...is what makes the difference between this body and the other one"--and, in a Senate floor speech in the same year, Biden said that "the very reason why we have the filibuster rule" is "so when one party, when one interest controls all the levers of government, one man or woman can stand on the floor of the Senate and resist, if need be, the passions of the moment."