“This may be a moment in Senate history, when a senator made a proposal that, when given an opportunity for a vote on that proposal, filibustered his own proposal…I don’t think this has ever happened before.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, after Mitch McConnell’s latest scheme blew up in his face. McConnell introduced legislation today that would allow the president to unilaterally raise the debt limit, suspecting that Democrats wouldn’t have the guts to vote for it. When it became clear that Democrats did indeed have the votes to pass the bill with a simple majority, McConnell filibustered it, preventing its passage. The United States Senate, ladies and gentlemen. source (via shortformblog)

(via shortformblog)

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Are we a democracy or are we an oligarchy where the very powerful special interests exert enormous influence over our government.

..I think we’re an oligarchy and I think it’s getting worse and I think we need to rally the American people…

The middle class in this country is collapsing. Poverty is increasing and the gap between the very rich and everybody else is growing wider. And what’s happening with the banks is one of the reasons that that is occurring, so this is not esoteric. This is our standard of living. This is the survival of the middle class.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders

video here