"It’s not the Founders who have changed; it’s the Democrats’ use for them."

Julia Shaw at Heritage talks about Senator Harry Reid's complaint that Congress is moving away from what the Founders had intended. Reid thinks Republicans are abusing their power to continue debate on health care legislation, saying "[The Founders] didn’t write this esteemed body’s rules so that we could stare at the hands of the clock, which are right up here, as they rotate around each other without end." As early as last year, Reid had said that “without robust debate, the Senate is crippled.”

When Democrats control Congress and the Presidency in 2009, suddenly the Founders see the role of Senate as rubber stamping legislation without debate or input from the minority party.