They [congress] are patriotic, hard-working and devoted to the public good as they see it, but the institutional and cultural impediments to change frustrate the intentions of these well-meaning people as rarely before. It was not always thus.Yes, as we all know, the US was designed to be run top down by a rapidly moving federal government. We didn't create checks and balances and a government limited by a constitution, because we wanted to make sure that our well meaning overlords could change things on a dime!
Currently, the decision to begin debate on a bill can be filibustered, followed by another filibuster on each amendment, followed by yet another filibuster before a final vote. This leads to multiple legislative delays and effectively grinds the Senate to a halt.
Sure, one filibuster per law, provided the Senate stops completely rewriting laws during the debate process.
True story: there was once a law called To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide earnings assistance and tax relief to members of the uniformed services, volunteer firefighters, and Peace Corps volunteers, and for other purposes. Somewhere along the line, the Senate decided to completely replace the text of that bill with a $700 billion giveaway to the financial services industry.
Under Baye's proposed rule, this nonsense couldn't even be filibustered. Great plan.