From multiple directions, the crisis over the filibuster is peaking for Democrats. …
Reform advocates don’t expect Democrats to resolve the latest standoff by exempting the debt ceiling from the filibuster—most bet that the party will eventually turn to the special budget-reconciliation process to pass the increase. But they do hope the Republican willingness to court default and financial chaos by filibustering the debt-ceiling increase will pressure Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to reconsider their blanket defense of the rule. …
McConnell’s latest maneuver on the debt ceiling may have inadvertently made the strongest case yet for changing the filibuster. As he’s done before on Supreme Court confirmations, McConnell recently conjured a self-serving new “rule.” The Senate Republican leader declared that the majority party alone should bear the burden of passing the politically fraught debt-ceiling legislation. CONTINUED
Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic
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