This is a bill out of congress, it's not "the government", it's 535 congressmen, with assorted aides and lobbyists.
Right or wrong, the Republicans decided they were going to vote en masse against anything the democrats want to do regarding.. anything. This means that the democrats need to get 100% of the votes from within their caucus and allows a couple corrupt senators to ruin the whole process.
If we had 100 senators trying to solve problems, we'd be able to get 60 reasonable people to agree on something. When you start with 60 and need every last one, you're gonna have some stinker clauses in there.
You're talking about a technicality. Yes, it's not in the executive branch for sure - it's just through the initial part of the legislature. However, if you think both sides (R's & D's) haven't been extremely influenced you're living in a partisan fantasy.
Democrats love to talk populism while taking contributions from big everything (biz, banks, unions, special interests, etc). The Republicans do the same shit - they just talk populism seasoned with pro-business themes.
All the standard-issue corruption aside, the current Republican party has made it their official policy to gum up congress completely, hoping that come election-time, they can point to a lack of progress and regain control of the House. It's clear as day. It might even be a good move, from a game theory perspective. Not so much from a "honor the oath you swore when you took office" perspective.
Right or wrong, the Republicans decided they were going to vote en masse against anything the democrats want to do regarding.. anything. This means that the democrats need to get 100% of the votes from within their caucus and allows a couple corrupt senators to ruin the whole process.
If we had 100 senators trying to solve problems, we'd be able to get 60 reasonable people to agree on something. When you start with 60 and need every last one, you're gonna have some stinker clauses in there.