'BradCast' 9/22/2021: (Guest: Norm Ornstein of AEI on how Dems can (and must) reform the filibuster, save the country)
On today's 'BradCast':\xa0\xa0 What we are witnessing in Washington D.C. is not just an exercise in how the legislative sausage gets made, or doesn't. It is also an extraordinarily perilous moment for the survival of the republic, as Democrats face down an insurrectionist GOP seemingly hell-bent on taking the nation and the world down with them. This nightmare moment for the nation arrives via a Congressional Republican Party willing to fully tank the U.S. economy by refusing to vote to raise the ridiculous 'debt ceiling' that funds the spending that Congress (including Republicans!) already committed to paying for, including trillions in GOP tax cuts during the Trump years. It also reveals several mighty internecine battles within the Democratic Party as it tries to reach agreement on Joe Biden's proposed $3.5 trillion Build Back Back proposal and the Freedom to Vote Act, crucial democracy reform to counter the massive voter suppression and election subversion efforts adopted by GOP-controlled states in advance of the 2022 mid-terms and the 2024 Presidential race. To accomplish anything, Democrats will almost certainly need to reform the filibuster in some way. Congressional historian NORMAN ORNSTEIN explains the stakes for the nation at this critical moment, and several avenues by which Democrats may be able to successfully navigate this minefield to deliver meaningful policies for the American people, including filibuster reform and defense of voting rights. If not, he warns, the nation is in 'deep, deep, DEEP trouble'.\xa0 On a lighter note, Ornstein also discusses his involvement in a shockingly prescient, hilarious 1998 satirical novel by former Sen. Al Franken.