"America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it. "

"America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it"

That's the concluding line in Paul Krugman's New York Times editorial today. He's referring to what I have been calling the 'broken' or 'dysfunctional' Congress, most obvious in the Senate with it's arcane filibuster and 'privilege hold' rules that can stop anything from getting done.

Also today the news is that, although most everyone agrees we need a bill to create jobs, even the watered down version is having trouble garnering the 60 votes needed to move it to the floor for debate and vote.

The situation is so bad, Krugman says, that he misses Newt Gingrich who, as House Speaker in 1995, forced a temporary government shutdown by cutting off funding. As bad as that was, Krugman says, at least Gingrich had specific demands: sharp cuts in Medicare.

Now, we get wholesale "No" either for no reason except that they can stop Democrats or in order to try to force action on some unrelated issue, like Richard Shelby's putting a hold on 70 Obama appointments until he gets action on some defense spending bill in his state. Krugman says:

And with the national G.O.P. having abdicated any responsibility for making things work, it’s only natural that individual senators should feel free to take the nation hostage until they get their pet projects funded.

The truth is that given the state of American politics, the way the Senate works is no longer consistent with a functioning government. Senators themselves should recognize this fact and push through changes in those rules, including eliminating or at least limiting the filibuster. This is something they could and should do, by majority vote, on the first day of the next Senate session.

Don’t hold your breath. As it is, Democrats don’t even seem able to score political points by highlighting their opponents’ obstructionism.

It should be a simple message (and it should have been the central message in Massachusetts): a vote for a Republican, no matter what you think of him as a person, is a vote for paralysis. But by now, we know how the Obama administration deals with those who would destroy it: it goes straight for the capillaries. Sure enough, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, accused Mr. Shelby of “silliness.” Yep, that will really resonate with voters. . . .

America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it.

Sounds dire, and I'm pessimistic . . . but not quite hopeless . . . yet.

Ralph