A Senate Rule that Reveals the Plutocratic Character of Our Democracy

Professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, whom I follow on Facebook, is a master of comparative data. In a posting yesterday, he asked why 60 votes in the senate is necessary to raise the minimum wage for ordinary people, but it only takes 51 votes to pass a 1.9 trillion dollar tax cut for corporations and the super-rich. That’s the kind of remark that sends Republican state legislators scurrying to introduce bills designed to make it more difficult for ordinary people to vote.