Here in my opinion was the beginning – “The Hastert rule, also known as the "majority of the majority" rule, is an informal governing principle used in the United States by Republican Speakers of the House of Representatives since the mid-1990s to maintain their speakerships[1] and limit the power of the minority party to bring bills up for a vote on the floor of the House.[2] Under the doctrine, the speaker will not allow a floor vote on a bill unless a majority of the majority party supports the bill.[3]

Under House rules, the speaker schedules floor votes on pending legislation. The Hastert rule says that the speaker will not schedule a floor vote on any bill that does not have majority support within their party—even if the majority of the members of the House would vote to pass it. The rule keeps the minority party from passing bills with the assistance of a minority of majority party members. In the House, 218 votes are needed to pass a bill; if 200 Democrats are the minority and 235 Republicans are the majority, the Hastert rule would not allow 200 Democrats and 100 Republicans together to pass a bill, because 100 Republican votes is short of a majority of the majority party, so the speaker would not allow a vote to take place.[4]

The Hastert rule is an informal rule and the speaker is not bound by it; they may break it at their discretion. Speakers have at times broken the Hastert rule and allowed votes to be scheduled on legislation that lacked majority support within the Speaker's own party. Dennis Hastert alleged the rule was "kind of a misnomer" in that it "never really existed" as a rule.”

Gingrich does get blamed for a lot of stuff Hastert did. But certainly, Gingrich was by no means a saint. Gingrich was one of those politicians democrats love to hate. There was plenty of good reasons for that. Perhaps the biggest reason was the “Contract with American,” Gingrich came up with that ended 40 straight years of house rule by the democrats. The republicans gained 54 seats in the 1994 midterms. Gingrich while speaker also push for Bill Clinton’s impeachment over Monica Lewinski. It was, however, Hastert who went through with the impeachment of Bill Clinton after he took over as speaker.

Last edited by perotista; 05/05/24 12:23 AM.
It's high past time that we start electing Americans to congress and the presidency who put America first instead of their political party. For way too long we have been electing Republicans and Democrats who happen to be Americans instead of Americans who happen to be Republicans and Democrats.