Mitch McConnell warns Senate Democrats against the abolition of legislative obstruction



[ad_1]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has sharply rebuked the Democrats for putting an end to the filibuster.

A New York Times The Thursday op-op of the Kentucky Republicans offers a detailed defense of filibuster obstruction, which actually requires that any legislative measure have at least 60 votes in the 100-member chamber, instead of a simple majority of 51. McConnell's opinion arrives a few days after his Democratic predecessor as leader of the majority, former Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, called for the disappearance of the obstruction of the # 39; obstruction. Reid argued that the practice prevents the will of the people from being realized and is undemocratic.

McConnell disagreed, stating that the requirement of 60 votes guaranteed that the legislation passed by the chamber was the result of compromise and negotiation, and not just a whim of the majority.

"Legislative flibustice is directly downstream from our founding tradition, and if this tradition thwarts the whims of the far left, it is their half-cooked proposals and not secular wisdom that must be reorganized," McConnell wrote.

Warning of the long-term consequences of such a decision, Mr. McConnell said that his GOP colleagues and he "will not vandalize this fundamental tradition" simply because it would be beneficial to them in the short term because they maintain the majority at Senate.

"We recognize what everyone should recognize – there are no permanent victories in politics." No Republican has the slightest trouble imagining the exhaustive list of socialist policies that 51 Senate Democrats would willingly inflict. to Central America in an unobstructed Senate, "he said.

McConnell also alluded to relatively frequent changes in party control, which may mean that today's majority party is the minority of tomorrow. Beginning with the 1980 election, the majority of the Senate has been amended seven times (nine if an additional 17-day period of democratic control is taken into account in January 2001).

The Senate buccaneer has been weakened in recent years thanks to Republicans and Democrats.

In 2013, the Senate, led by the then majority leader, Reid, opted for nuclear by eliminating the use of systematic filibustering on all presidential candidates, except for those chosen for the Supreme Court. At the time, Democrats accused Republicans of blocking President Barack Obama's candidates in a show of political retaliation.

After the Republicans took control of the Senate, McConnell removed the 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court candidates in 2017, which paved the way for the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch. The rise of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and dozens of district court judges followed.

McConnell pinned "the legacy of the procedural avalanche" to the Democrats and said that "the consequences of following Senator Reid's advice will haunt the Liberals for decades."

In his New York Times Last week, Reid, who had held the position of Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015, said that the filibuster "stifled" the will of the American people, especially with respect to climate change and control. firearms. "Something must change, which is why I now ask the Senate to abolish the buccaneer in all its forms and I call the candidates who wish to be named Democrats for the presidency," he said. -he declares.

McConnell warned that on legislation, deliberation is a "precious tradition" and the removal of obstruction would force the Senate to lose its "safeguard" status from the US government so that it becomes too similar to the House, where a simple majority suffices. . "One of the central objectives of the organization is to ensure that new laws get more support than is required for a simple majority in the House." The legislative filibuster is not included in the text of the bill. the Constitution, but it is at the heart of the order established by the Constitution, "he said.

Noting that some Democratic leaders in the Senate and presidential candidates flirted with the idea of ​​eliminating the filibuster, McConnell said he hoped "fairer voices among the Democrats could help their compatriots understand the reason ".

[ad_2]

Source link