A Proposal to Break the Deadlock in Congress

John Boehner

There is an interesting piece in Salon magazine today about breaking the stalemate in the House of Representatives, the responsible party for most of our government's dysfunction.

Basically, the suggestion is this: House Speaker John Boehner should toss out the Hastert Rule, the one stating that legislation must have a majority of the majority's votes in order to reach the floor for a vote. A coalition of "pragmatic" Republicans (let's not say "moderate" because they don't exist) and Democrats could pass a substantial portion of the legislation the House can't even get to the floor because of the TParty Republicans' efforts to vote "no" on everything.

Democrats would have to give something back, of course, and that would be support in January for Boehner's continuation as speaker for another term. He would lose a good bit of Republican support, but Dems could help him keep his seat, which seems to be more imporant to him than governing.

It's worth a try.

(Photo: politico.com)