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Congressional Cost Of Obstruction Lower Than Cost Of Construction

02/26/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Yesterday, President Barack Obama held a seven and a half hour televised meeting with the Republicans only to have it, basically, go nowhere fast. The Republicans are claiming victory, the Democrats can claim victory, but the only people who cannot claim victory is the American people. Truthfully, this summit probably produced next to nothing, and will probably not change things very much. The problem is not so much Obama or Reid or Pelosi- though they are to blame to some extent- but rather a breakdown in the structures of the system. In a sense, Congress is beginning to resemble the battlefields of World War I.

That analogy might seem odd to people, but there is some backing to it. When World War I broke out, the biggest obstacle facing the Allied and Axis armies was the advancement of defensive technology rather than offensive technology. Basically, it was easier to take ground and hold it rather than breaking through the lines. Until the invention of the tank, the lines moved little and all that happened was soldiers would die on the barbed wire barricades when people rushed the lines.

Right now, it is easier to obstruct in Congress than construct. Basically, one Senator can object to something and hold it up indefinitely. It use to be that a filibuster meant shutting down the whole Senate and forcing the Senator objecting to stand at the podium until his voice or body gave out. It brought all business to a halt. Senators had to have someone backing them in order to get a nominee shut down. Basically, the Senate functioned because it was too costly to do anything major to object to legislation that one opposed. Filibusters happened, but they were rare. Today, all a Senator has to do is say “I’m filibustering” and the legislation is tabled and the Senate moves on.

Having an easy ability to obstruct is nice, if you are the minority party, but it ultimately paralyzes the nation and this is what is slowly causing the country as a whole to turn away from the elected leaders and their government. Once people turn on their government, it is often impossible for them to feel loyalty again quickly.

For the LGBT Community, this structure is very troublesome. It means that many LGBT rights are subject to filibuster because of the high cost of preventing the obstruction. Many Republican Senators, unfortunately, want to score quick political points with their supporters and to do that means obstructing LGBT rights.

Where Reid and Pelosi are to blame for this is that they are not strong enough to change the rules back so that the filibuster and other committee and parliamentary rules make it so that the cost of obstructing business is greater than constructing business.