Republicans In Senate Kill Constitutional Amendment

Last week progressives were cheering because a filibuster was stopped and the constitutional amendment overturning the Citizens United and McCutcheon court decisions was finally allowed to come to the Senate floor for a debate. There were even some Republicans who voted to allow that.

Unfortunately, as some of us suspected, those Republicans didn't want the constitutional amendment passed (or even voted on) -- they just wanted the debate to happen to keep the Democrats from trying to force a vote on other issues (like equal pay for women). On Thursday, Senate Democrats tried to bring the amendment up for a vote. But they failed. Every single Republican voted to continue the debate rather than hold a vote, and since stopping the debate required 60 votes, the Republicans were able to carry the day.

The vote was denied by a 54 to 42 vote -- with every Democrat voting to have a vote on the constitutional amendment, and every Republican voting to deny that opportunity to vote. This should come as no surprise. The Republicans know that they are the biggest beneficiaries of the massive donations by the rich and the corporations -- and they don't want to give that up. After all, their primary interest is in getting re-elected -- not in protecting the free speech rights (or voting rights) of ordinary Americans. They want money to equal speech, because they can win the money battle (but not the real speech battle).

This was a good constitutional amendment, and it needs to be passed. But that's never going to happen as long as the Republicans control the House and have the filibuster in the Senate.