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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised a “nightmare” for Senate Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris if they decide to end the filibuster within the next two years.
McConnell’s disturbing speech, in which he also praised the 60-vote hurdle for the Senate to pass bills and warned of a dystopian Senate if Democrats withdraw it, came after two Democrats Senate officials said on file Monday that they do not support removing senatorial minority protection.
After having obtained these promises from Sense. Joe Manchin. DW.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., McConnell conceded to his demand that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., include a filibuster-preserving clause in their sharing deal. power in the Senate 50-50.
McConnell said that “simple arithmetic” now ensures that the Senate “will not tear up a central rule.”
MCCONNELL TERMINATES STALEMATE ON FILIBUSTER, PAVING THE WAY FOR A POWER SHARING AGREEMENT WITH SCHUMER
“The Senate exists to demand deliberation and cooperation. James Madison said the job of the Senate is to provide complicated oversight … against inappropriate legislative action,” McConnell said. “We make sure that the laws gain enough adherence to receive the lasting consent of the governed. We stop bad ideas, improve good ideas, and stop the laws from flipping around in every election.
But, said McConnell, “I want to discuss the precipice from which the Senate retreated … So let’s take a look at what would happen if, in fact, the legislative obstruction were gone.”
McConnell said, in what was essentially a threat, that there would be “immediate chaos, especially in this 50-50 Senate.”
FILE – In this December 30, 2020, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Ky., Visits the Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo / Susan Walsh, file)
“Destroying the systematic obstruction would exhaust the courtesy and consent of this body to a degree that would be unprecedented in living memory,” he said. “The Constitution requires the Senate to have a quorum to do business. At present, a quorum is 51 and the Vice President does not count to establish a quorum. The majority cannot even produce a quorum of its own. alone, and one could be demanded by any senator at almost any time. “
MCCONNELL RELENT IN THE FIGHT OF FILIBUSTER, HERE’S WHY
McConnell said equally divided committees would need a quorum to do business – something Republicans, who make up half of a committee, could theoretically refuse.
“Technically, it takes collegiality and consent for the majority to continue to act as a majority anytime it does not physically… have a majority,” McConnell added. “Every Senate Democrat and vice president could basically just block the next two years on their schedule. They should be here all the time.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York takes the elevator at the U.S. Capitol Friday, January 22, 2021, in Washington. It only took a few days for Democrats to assess how far President Joe Biden’s bold immigration proposal can go to Congress to recognize that if anything emerges, it will likely be much more modest. (AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta)
McConnell warned that in a “scorched earth post-nuclear Senate,” Republicans could block requests for unanimous consent to schedule speeches or meet before 12 noon. McConnell added that Republicans could force all confirmations “even at the lowest level” to move. “A snail’s step.”
Things would either go “in the hardest way possible or not at all” without the filibuster, McConnell warned, and that if Democrats got rid of the filibuster “it would be immediately and painfully clear. for the Democratic majority that they had effectively just broken the Senate. “
“It would hamper Biden’s presidency due to a takeover that the president has taken decades to warn about,” McConnell said.
McConnell’s comments came immediately after Schumer bragged about “notable progress” on a power-sharing deal between the two leaders after McConnell “finally gave in” on “his request for additional provisions” to the deal. 2001 power-sharing that “last governed a 50 -50 Senate.”
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Schumer said he was “happy that we are finally able to get the Senate going. My only regret is that it has taken so long.”
The deal between Schumer and McConnell, assuming it finally comes to fruition, would likely make Democrats the committee chairs, but allow for a 50/50 split between the parties on each committee. Meanwhile, it would likely allow legislation to pass through the Senate even if it receives a tie vote in committee.
It would also govern other rules on how the Senate worked over the next two years – without which the Senate was largely limited. Therefore, Senators began Biden’s tenure given his less controversial Cabinet nominees, particularly on national security issues.
Now, with an agreement on how to run the chamber looming, she will be able to tackle more controversial issues more effectively. The Senate will need to act quickly on immediate priorities – former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial begins in earnest on February 9 and will occupy the entire Senate calendar until it comes to a resolution.
But, McConnell said, any progress on anything would be destroyed if Democrats got rid of the filibuster.
“Taking that leap wouldn’t be a progressive dream. It would be a nightmare,” he said. “I guarantee it.”
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