But all they want is a vote. This whole idea of the Speaker controlling what gets voted on is deeply undemocratic. The "Hastert rule" ensures that even proposals that a majority of house members support, won't even get a vote of the majority of the majority party doesn't support it.
See, this is something I don't think is talked about enough. Speaker(s) of the House should not be running their chamber like this. Remember immigration reform? Boehner wouldn't even give it a vote. Why not? There was a pretty decent amount of support. Same with this - Congress is now being run as such where the majority party basically runs it as if they are the only people whose agenda matters and they only give in when absolutely forced to for PR reasons or even just to move on with business. Democrats and Republicans both need to acknowledge that they represent huge parts of America, of which
both sides deserve to have their issues addressed, or at least given votes.
The Senate is a notorious example of this. 60 votes for cloture was never supposed to be used as a de-facto majority requirement to pass bills and now that is exactly what it has become, and it's crippling the ability of Congress to do anything. The filibuster needs to be changed so that bills can only be blocked for as long as people are actually willing to stand up talking, and bills in the House should be able to get a vote if a significant percentage of the House wants it - Maybe even 40% of the House.
Otherwise, Congress is never going to be able to do anything when govt is divided and one side can effectively nuke a proposal either by denial of cloture or by the Speaker refusing to let a bill get a vote. It's too much power for one side.
