Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Political bravery

It was a heroic effort while it lasted. Sigh. I had reported the Democrats of the Missouri Senate were filibustering an amendment to the state constitution to protect religious freedom (also known as a license to discriminate). After 39 hours the GOP pulled a parliamentary maneuver to end the filibuster. They then voted for the bill 21-11.

This is reported as preliminary approval. I'm not sure what that means other than the Senate will have to vote again sometime. And then the House. Since it is a constitutional amendment the governor (who is on our side) has no say.

Last year the GOP use the same maneuver to shut down an 8 hour filibuster. The Dems responded by shutting down debate on everything else. They'll likely do the same thing in the 8 weeks left in this session.

Chris Reeves of Daily Kos has praise for the political bravery of these Democrats.

Meanwhile the Missouri House voted to strip nearly $380,000 for Planned Parenthood from the 2018 state budget. Rep. Ross, who pushed the measure doesn't want state dollars going towards abortions, but that amount of money cuts a significant amount of general women's health care.

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