Now that the Democratic Party has retained majority control of the U.S. Senate, it is absolutely imperative that its leaders take immediate steps to change the rules that govern the use of the filibuster, mitigating the use of that destructive weapon by the GOP obstructionists. This country simply cannot tolerate four more years of total gridlock in the U.S. Senate.

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Now that the Democratic Party has retained majority control of the U.S. Senate, it is absolutely imperative that its leaders take immediate steps to change the rules that govern the use of the filibuster, mitigating the use of that destructive weapon by the GOP obstructionists. This country simply cannot tolerate four more years of total gridlock in the U.S. Senate. This nation's most critical problems are screaming for solutions and, significantly reducing the obstructive powers of the GOP, will pave the way for that process to begin.

The Democrats will, once again, be given the opportunity to neutralize the power of the filibuster by amending the rules that currently exist. After the national elections in 2010 the Democrats, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid, had that brilliant opportunity and failed to seize it. And for that colossal blunder they, as well as the American people, paid a terrible price. It is absolutely astounding that, since 2007, GOP members of the Senate have used the filibuster to stymie or entirely prevent the enactment of legislation a total of 360 times.

To defang the GOP means that the weapon of obstruction must be removed from their hands. Their ability to obstruct, stall and delay important legislation must be ended. I am sick and tired of watching these arrogant political bullies being allowed to wreak havoc in the Senate. It's time to make them play by new rules and not let them continue to dominate the political discourse through their devious tactics. Enough is enough, end the nonsense and do the work of the people. There are two specific ways by which the Senate Democrats can accomplish this:

1. They can simply change the rule: Changes to the Senate rules are usually subject to a two-thirds, or 67-vote, threshold, but rules also allow changes to be made with the consent of 51 members if they are voted on at the beginning of the Congressional session. There is no question that the Democrats, since they have the majority, could make this change; they and Reid have not taken such action in the past since they feared that, if they did it and Republicans later took control of the Senate, they themselves would be less able to use the filibuster in critical situations. That selfish, negative position can no longer be taken.

2. They can begin to enforce the existing filibuster rules; I believe that the best option is to change the rules so that legislation can be passed with a simple majority vote. But if that is not done, for whatever reason, then it should be absolutely mandatory that if any party, and the Republicans specifically, invoke a filibuster, they must be made to follow the standard Senate rule in which one or more members, in order to oppose and delay legislation, must stand on the Senate Floor for hours on end; just like James Stewart did to make his points in the classic movie, "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington."

Another contributing factor to the gridlock in the Congress involves the use of a senatorial hold by which it is possible for one senator to initiate a blocking tactic to prevent legislation from reaching the Senate floor. There have been many moves to either abolish the hold rules or to reform the process but all have failed because it is so difficult to get members of either party to agree on just how to do it; they have the great concern that it will somehow backfire on their own agenda. So this controversial practice should be studied by Democrats to determine how exactly it could be altered or abolished.

Majority Leader Harry Reid has already stated that he intends to change the filibuster rule at the start of the next session of Congress. He knows that if he doesn't that he, his colleagues and the president will spend the next four years accomplishing nothing. Reid had been poised to do just that in 2010 but, when the time came, he backed off and we all know what transpired thereafter. This time he has no choice; he must initiate this rule change and, if he fails to follow through, he must be replaced by a Majority Leader who will.

Once the filibuster rules are changed to allow legislation to be brought to a vote and enacted with a simple majority, the Senate can finally go about doing the business of the nation, to solve its problems. Here are the issues and problems which the Obama administration and the Congress need to address beginning immediately: I have made only minimal comments on each one of them because the solutions to these problems and the direction that this government needs to take on them has been discussed endlessly and what needs to be done could not be any more clear:

*Halt the outsourcing of jobs: initiate tax incentives and penalties; corporations who want to do business in America must be mandated to employ a certain percentage of U.S. workers.

*Solve the Israel/Iran threat of war: stop threatening war, start high level negotiations between the U.S. and Iran; exclude Israel and PM Netanyahu.

*Continue building universal health care: improve and expand Obamacare into a universal health care system with Medicare as the model.

*Repair the nation's infrastructure: stop the rapid deterioration; repair bridges, develop high speed rail, expand and modernize the electrical grid.

*Development of alternate sources of energy: solar, wind, geothermal and many others.

*End the restrictions on Americans' rights: the Patriot Act and the NDAA (The National Defense Authorization Act) must be revisited and unconstitutional restrictions on the American people must be removed.

*Address the issue of climate change: stop the insane denial, accept reality and the mounting evidence at hand and do something now.

*Address the massive inequality of wealth/income: if not remedied, this condition will destroy the American economy and way of life.

*Bring Corporate America and Wall Street under control: reverse Citizens United, stop the financial crimes and bring these entities under control.

*End the wars, reduce the Empire:   war, the cancer, the systemic disease that is destroying the foundations of this nation. It will be almost impossible to achieve this objective but, if sanity, reason and logic are not used before too long to rid this country of its obsession with military power and wars, this country has no future, it will eventually self destruct.

And, yes, we need to keep bringing up these same issues over and over again, as tiresome as that might be, because they continue to be almost totally ignored by this dysfunctional government. We need to keep hammering until those who inhabit Washington start doing the jobs for which they are being paid.

In this just concluded election this president and the Democrats better understand that the American people didn't give them a mandate to govern as they wish. They were given one more chance to make things happen in this government with the understanding that the people will not tolerate four more years of gridlock and obstruction. They are fed up, angry and frustrated and they are going to watch very closely what Mr. Obama and his congressional colleagues do. So, the handwriting is on the wall as to what the Democratic Party must do -- and the key factor in making things happen will be to change the filibuster rules and mitigate the power of the GOP obstructionists.

One other very important issue; if this president offers up cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to the Republicans as a concession in order to get them to agree to increasing taxes on the richest Americans, as rumors continue to insist, then he will feel the wrath and the fury of the American people come down on him. If he dares to do that to the very people who saved him from the jaws of defeat in this election his presidency will become essentially irrelevant.

With the neutralization of the filibuster, this president, together with this Congress, will have the opportunity to address those issues and objectives listed above and get meaningful legislation enacted. This president needs to work with the Republicans in a mutual, cooperative effort to achieve positive results. However, if his fellow Democrats see him veering too much toward the center right, beginning to appease or cave in to Republicans, if he fails to provide the strong leadership that is required, then those same Democrats must join with the people of America to put immense, relentless pressure on him to force him to initiate the actions needed to bring about the "real change" that he keeps talking about; changes that America badly needs.

Michael Payne