Love That Filibuster

An amendment by Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) to make our crazy farm subsidy policies somewhat less crazy got 56 votes in the Senate. There are, of course, 100. So, naturally, the amendment failed. Similarly, one good low-cost way to start moving toward addressing global warming would be to take back some tax subsidies for oil companies. Fortunately, the Senate had a bill like that. Equally fortunately, the bill got 59 votes. So, naturally, it went down to defeat.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/12/love-that-filibuster/47408/