THE AMERICAN people are angry — for good reason. About 20 percent of our workforce is unemployed or under-employed, health insurance premiums are soaring while more and more people lose coverage, we are looking at record-breaking deficits, global warming threatens the planet, young people can’t afford college, and we are fighting two wars.

In the midst of all this, facing the greatest set of crises since the Great Depression, the Republican Party has become the “Party of No.’’ Senate Republicans have engaged in a record number of filibusters and other obstructionist tactics. More than 280 bills passed by the House have not yet been considered in the Senate. Day after day Republicans slow down legislation and use the Senate’s arcane rules to make sure nothing is...