UPDATE: Harry Reid dropped the bomb . Maybe you heard about filibustering in the Senate and the threat of a “nuclear option,” and maybe you’re still a little bit confused about what it all means. Sit back and let the cast of Mean Girls walk you through the finer points.
President Obama and the Democrats created a new government agency a few years ago called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. They were really proud of it.
Via giphy.com
Republicans hated the new agency, considering it a stifling new bureacracy, and wanted it dead. They tried to stop it from getting off the ground, even going so far as to try and prevent Obama from appointing someone to run the new agency.
Republicans knew they didn't have enough votes to stop the nomination, so they repeatedly used a filibuster to prevent a vote from even happening.
But this wasn't the kind of filibuster where someone talks for hours on end, it was a filibuster taking advantage of a pre-vote procedure that requires a supermajority to simply allow a vote. Basically, everyone sits around and nothing happens.
Via whatshouldglotzbachcallme.tumblr.com
