Second Order Effects Premise of Article:
This article looks at the second order effects of the Senate procedural changes made by the Majority Leader in 2013. Senator Harry Reid unilaterally decided to change the rules in the Senate with respect to confirmation of presidential appointees and Federal Judges. The rule change simplified the procedure for confirming presidential appointees that required confirmation. The change was made because the Republican minority was using every level of power that they had to slow down the administration and to force the administration to nominate more moderate appointees.
Background:
Before the change, any Senator could say that he wanted to continue debate on a given appointee or put a hold on the appointee. The only way to move the appointee was to satisfy the Senator or have a cloture vote so you could move to an up or down vote and that required 60% of the Senate to go to the vote. To confirm the nominee once you got past a cloture vote you only needed a simple majority.
The After the change, the Senate Majority Leader could simply put the vote on the schedule, have 20 hours of debate and then they could have an up or down vote for confirmation. With this change, often called the Nuclear option, the majority leader removed one of the tools that minorities use to moderate the majority.
These rules have stood for 200 years and were in place for a reason. The Senate rules were designed to slow down deliberations and force compromises so that one would prevent the “tyranny of the majority“. The design of these rules were developed to offset the inherent weaknesses in a pure direct democracy and majority rule. Without rules like the ones removed by the Majority Leader, the minority can be completely ignored.
Current Second Order Effect:
If you are in the majority the new system is a great, but it prevents public debate. When the President is of the same party as the Senate Majority Leader, the Senate becomes a rubber stamp and not serving as the Constitutional backstop that it is suppose to be. The more insidious second order effect is the potential for future Senate leaders to use Senator Reid’s action as a president to remove additional rules that protect the views and rights of minorities. (As happened when Mich McConnell, the current majority leader did that to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court).
To carry the concept of a Senate without the current rules that require a super majority to do much of anything. Without rules like the one that Senator Read removed, when ever power pass, even on the slimiest majority, major changes can be implemented without any opposition. One congress could pass Social Security and the next congress could remove it with just a one vote change. So there wouldn’t be any stability, this would effect the very fabric of life in the country.
Lessons from these Second Order Effects:
The Democrats are now regretting this change and now see that the design of the Senate rules prevented big changes in the country without a super majority. We hope they will learn that these rules are there for a reason. To make sure they learn their lesson, the Republicans should use these rules that Senator Reid put in place until they are on the verge of losing control of the senate. The Republicans should change the rules back to the traditional values before the rule change just before they lose control and dare the Democrats to change them again.