Three weeks ago, the Wisconsin state senate faced the mass exodus of all of its Democratic members, who fled in order to prevent a landmark vote.  The vote in question was to be on a radical new bill championed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: the so-called “budget repair bill.”  While the bill in its full form has not been voted on, Republicans found a way to force through the section of the bill that curtailed the rights of public unions in Wisconsin (npr.org).

This surprise move by GOP senators was made possible by a loophole in Wisconsin law.  By law, any bill that requires government expenditure (spending money) must be voted on with a minimum number of senators present.  A bill that does not spend money, however, does not.  Considering what a likely small percentage of laws do not involve spending, this doesn’t seem to be much of a loophole, but on Wednesday March 9, Wisconsin lawmakers took full advantage of it to break the stalemate.

Republican senators divided up the “budget repair bill,” removing the section limiting union rights and making it its own bill.  Since this new bill did not spend any money, the Republican senators were able to pass it into law without the help of the 14 senate Democrats who fled the state to prevent a quorum, and therefore, prevent such a measure from passing (nytimes.com).

Just to add a nice sense of hypocrisy to the day’s action, Democratic Sen. Bob Jauch declared that if Republicans “chose to ram this bill through in this fashion, it will be to their political peril. They’re changing the rules. They will inflame a very frustrated public” (news.yahoo.com).  Granted, this was a major move by Republicans, who basically circumvented all existing governmental apparatuses to prevent such a unilateral move, but they are far from the only party headed for political peril.

The Democrats ran for the hills because they knew they would lose, but turning tail and running away isn’t how democracy functions.  If the losing side ran from every vote to prevent a quorum, there likely wouldn’t be too many votes taking place in America today.  Furthermore, the Republicans didn’t change the rules, they took advantage of a lack of rules.  And finally, the public is in all likelihood frustrated, not because the Republicans have finally ended a three-week standoff, but because Democrats began a three-week standoff.