IT SHOULDN'T BE SO GODDAMN EASY TO FILIBUSTER

RIGHT NOW THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS SHUT DOWN BECAUSE OF A "FILIBUSTER" BEING ENGAGED IN BY DEMOCRATS IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE

(And incidentally also because it's Saturday).

We say that if you want to filibuster, you ought to be required to keep talking on your feet the whole time.  Once every senator has spoken OR once 60% of the Senators present vote to close the debate, the subject at hand goes to a vote. That used to be the requirement.  But in 1970 the Democrat Party altered the rule to state that any item could be filibustered simply by demanding a 60% majority for "cloture" of debate. Ostensibly, this was so that other business could be conducted. In reality it was so it wouldn't be so hard to inconvenience those opposed to what the Democrats were trying to do.  

How simple. To filibuster, you need to keep talking until you either drop or until 60% of Senators present vote to end the farce. This puts pressure on every Senator to remain available for a cloture vote. The Senate needs to return to the old "shut up and vote" rule. We'd like nothing better than to see Schumer and/or Durbin drop from exhaustion and be rushed to the hospital, only to return to find that the measure they'd been running on about passed into law. That works for us just fine

Change the rules, Republicans.  Filibustering should be hard.